In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the Dense Humid Forest is reduced to less than 5% of its original cover. However, it still has the highest richness of palms in this state, which constitute an important and economically relevant group. Environmental and demographic aspects of plant populations in forest fragments are of great importance for their management and conservation. We conducted a study on the spatial distribution and age structure of five palm species in a forest fragment at the municipality of Três Cachoeiras, in the north coast of Rio Grande do Sul. We delimited 25 10×10 m plots and counted the number of individuals in the stages of seedling, juvenile and adult for each palm species. Aggregation Indices were calculated with software SADIEShell. We performed variation partitioning analyses among species distribution and environmental variables canopy openness and soil moisture. A total of 1,443 plants were counted and the most abundant species was Euterpe edulis. The average density was of 57.72 ind. 100 m-2. Three species showed a pattern of "inverse J", which indicated that they have a potential for regenerating in that palm community. The predominant spatial pattern was aggregated (Ia>1) and canopy openness did not influence species abundances. Only the distribution of Bactris setosa and Geonoma gamiova, both understory species, was explained by soil moisture, suggesting that other abiotic or biotic factors may be influencing the spatial arrangement of the canopy species.
Altantic rainforest; population ecology, soil humidity; canopy openness
