Morphological responses to flooding in tree species of Brazilian subtropical riverine forests

Abstract

In southern Brazil floods are of low magnitude and occur with high frequency throughout the year. The objective of this work was to evaluate the responses to flooding in four native tree species. The species Eugenia uniflora L., Eugenia involucrata DC., Parapiptadenia rigida (Benth.) Brenan and Inga vera Willd. were distributed in control (C), partial (PF) and total (TF) flooding for 15 days and evaluated for growth and biomass. The results highlight that E. uniflora and P. rigida showed a reduction in dry mass under TF while I. vera and E. involucrata showed no difference under PF and TF. TF has a negative effect on root length in P. rigida and leaf number in E. uniflora. The responses observed for the studied species showed different morphological strategies to flooding periods that occur in subtropical riparian forests.