Resumo Características ambientais estão entre os gatilhos mais importantes e reguladores das fenofases das plantas. Portanto, mudanças abióticas e bióticas resultantes da perda de habitat e fragmentação podem resultar em alterações no padrão das espécies vegetais. Nós investigamos se a borda e interior de florestas possuem diferenças no padrão fenologico das comunidades de árvores. Nós acompanhamos a fenologia reprodutiva da comunidade de árvores em sete fragmentos mensalmente por dois anos (em 200 m² de parcelas no interior e borda por fragmento). Nós amostramos um total de 0,28 hectares de fragmentos florestais antrópicos, compreendendo 321 árvores pertencendo a 103 espécies. Nossos resultados evidenciaram mudanças na fenologia reprodutiva da comunidade de árvores da borda e interior, com: (i) atividade fenológica diferindo temporalmente entre os dois habitats (borda e interior) em toda comunidade vegetal; (ii) maior intensidade fenológica na borda do fragmento do que no interior dentre as espécies de árvores comuns aos dois habitats; (iii) mais espécies de árvores apresentaram atividade fenológica na borda em 2010 e interior em 2011 quando considerando apenas aquelas exclusivas de cada habitat. A fragmentação de habitat pode, portanto, alterar características microambientais e influenciar processos biológicos, incluindo a fenologia reprodutiva das árvores, através da formação de bordas.

Abstract Environmental characteristics are among the most important triggers and regulators of plant phenophases, so that the abiotic and biotic changes driven by habitat loss and fragmentation can result in alterations of plant phenological patterns. We investigated whether forest edge and interior have differences in phenological pattern of tree communities. We followed the reproductive phenologies of tree communities in seven forest fragments on a monthly basis for two years (in 200 m² edge and interior plots per fragment). We sampled a total of 0.28 ha of anthropic forest fragments, comprising 313 trees (180 in edge, 133 in interior) belonging to 103 species and 34 families. Our results evidenced reproductive phenological changes between edge and interior tree communities, with: (i) phenological activities differing temporally between the two habitats (edge and forest interior) in all tree communities; (ii) greater phenological intensity at the forest edge than in the forest interior among tree species common to both habitats; (iii) more tree species showed phenological activity at the forest edge in 2010 and interior in 2011, when considering only those exclusive to each habitat. Habitat fragmentation can therefore alter microenvironmental characteristics and influence biologic processes, including the reproductive phenologies of trees, through edge formation.

ABSTRACT Pasture and crop lands restrict seed dispersal near remnant forest fragments, especially by restricting the movements of dispersal agents and limiting propagule dispersal. Some factors can improve seed dispersal in open areas, such as the presence of high numbers of isolated trees in close proximity to forest fragments. We sought to determine if: (i) the structural characteristics and (ii) densities of isolated trees in pasture lands, and (iii) their distances from the forest fragments, influence seed dispersal. We installed 18 seed traps in each of six pastures (total=108 traps) bordering forest fragments distributed over 6 distance classes from the forest edges (0, 5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 m). We determined the characteristics of the plants surrounding the traps. GLM and GLMer analyses were performed and the best model was selected by AIC. We collected 8162 seeds (4722 anemochorous, 3304 epizoochorous, 72 autochorous, and 64 endozoochorous) belonging to 26 species. Our results showed that plants with high crown coverage close to forest fragments and at high densities in the pastures increased seed dispersal. These results may aid future restoration of pasture lands by improving seed dispersal in this harsh habitat and promoting better connectivity between forest fragments.