Assessment of the growth of Pothomorphe umbellata influenced by the level of canopy opening in the Atlantic Forest Aline Saturnino Souto Kamimura, Barbara Faria Lourenço, Letícia Parada Moreira, Roseli Baraçal, Fabio Giordano, Ursulla Pereira de Souza

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is a coastal, tropical rainforest with a hot and humid climate that extends along the Brazilian coast. It has great biodiversity and can be divided into upper, lower shrub and herbaceous strata, characterized according to the canopy opening that influences high, low or no radiation incidence. The plant species Pothomorphe umbellata from the Piperaceae family, is an example of a natural plant from the Atlantic Forest that lives in the lower stratum, where it receives little incidence of sunlight, thus creating adaptations, such as increasing the leaf area to better capture light and perform the photosynthetic process. To prove the hypothesis that the amount of light affects the growth of this plant, a study was carried out at several points on the Island of Santo Amaro, city of Guarujá, SP, where shaded and light areas of the forest were compared to verify the degree of plant development. It was found that the values ​​of the area with the greatest canopy opening differ from the region where the opening is smaller. However, it can be concluded that P. umbellata occurs more frequently in areas with greater availability of photosynthetic radiation, but the need for more detailed studies cannot be ruled out.