Phenological studies are important to the understanding of the dynamic of forest ecosystems, especially when they evaluate the availability of fruits to the fauna. The gallery forests occur along water streams and play an important role as natural corridors, allowing the gene flow and connecting populations isolated due the forest fragmentation. The present study aimed to understand how the reproductive phenology and the fruit availability of gallery forest species changes between seasons and over the year. Monthly observations were carried out on 29 plant species, 31% wind dispersed and 69% animal dispersed, from the gallery forest of Formoso River, Bonito Municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Flowering occurred in the transition from dry to wet season, and fruiting mainly during the wet season, but did not present significant correlation to rainfall or temperature, regardless the seasonal pattern. The species Attalea phalerata and Guibourtia hymenifolia accounted for most of the fruit production in the dry season, supplying food resources to frugivores during this period of fruit scarcity.
Anemochory; frugivory; gallery forest; phenology; seed dispersal; zoochory
