This study was undertaken in the gallery forests of Sete Cidades National Park (PNSC), a priority area for conservation of the Cerrado. The objective was to study the floristic composition, phytosociology and diversity of the gallery forests distributed along the river courses located in PNSC and also evaluate floristic similarity between these forests and others in the Cerrado biome. The tree vegetation (DAP > 5 cm) was sampled in four sections of forest in the Park, each subdivided into transects (50 m apart and perpendicular to the main stream), where 56 plots (10 x 10 m) were systematically sampled totaling 0.01 ha. 75 tree species were found belonging to 64 genera and 30 families. The Fabaceae (with 14 species) was the richest family in the sample. Virola surinamensis was the main species, according to the importance value index (IVI). Absolute density was 1,146.43 ind haֿ¹ and basal area was 26.55 m² haֿ¹. Alfa diversity obtained by the Shannon index (H’) was 3.53 and Pielou equability (J’) was 0.82. Beta diversity between the Park and other locations in the Cerrado was high. The PNSC gallery forests had high levels of richness and floristic diversity, sharing species with forests in different locations and with typical species of other biomes, proving that the Park is geographically located in an ecotone.
conservation unit; Cerrado; biodiversity; ecotone
