Santos, F.A.M. & Jesus, R.M. 1998. Tree community structure of an Atlantic forest at Linhares, SE Brazil. Resumos do VII Congresso Latino Americano de Botânica, Cidade do México, México, p. 132.

Abstract: The Atlantic forest is considered one of the world’s hotspots for biodiversity conservation. This is attributed to enormous spatial heterogeneity in these areas. Special attention to describe the physiognomy and floristic composition of the vegetation is fundamental to produce information for understanding these patterns and causes of spatial variation in communities of the Atlantic forests. We described the structure and composition of the tree community of an Atlantic forest Reserve (22000 ha) in SE Brazil. In 3.5 ha, we sampled 3376 trees dbh >= 5cm (964.6 trees ha-¹) of 318 species, 187 genera and 56 families with a mean basal area of 25.58 m² ha-¹. Total density and basal area were almost homogeneously distributed among the plots, but largely heterogeneous among species. Estimated richness was 208.9 +/- 13.2 species per hectare and 233.1 +/- 6.0 species per 1000 individuals. Floristic composition was largely heterogeneous among plots showing floristic similarities (Jaccard index) varying between 0.028 and 0.337. These values are similar or smaller than values obtained when comparing different forests and emphasize the large spatial variability in species composition.