In fire-protected sites of Central Brazil, forest trees can establish in the neighbouring savanna and grow side by side with cerrado trees of the same genera. Because of the large differences in their native environment, the cerrado and forest species may represent two distinct functional types. In this study we performed a comparative study of stomata anatomical characteristics, stomatal conductance and transpiration of 10 congeneric species pairs of cerrado and gallery forest species. Each pair was from a different family. Because stomatal anatomy and density affect the area and the path for gas diffusion through the stomatal pores, we also assessed possible relationships among the selected stomata traits and stomatal conductance. The area of the stomatal pore was the anatomical trait with the largest influence on gas exchange. Increases in pore area were correlated with an increase in stomatal conductance for most species. On the other hand, stomatal density was negatively correlated with both the length of the guard-cell and the area of the stomatal pore. The length of the stomatal pore and of the guard cell was significantly greater for cerrado species. However, most of the observed variation could be attributed to differences among genera, indicating that these stomatal traits are the product of the particular evolutionary history of each genus, and not the result of specialization to the cerrado or forest environment.
stomata; stomatal conductance; stomatal pore; transpiration
