Litterfall and herbaceous plants regeneration in planted forests at post prescribed fire in the Cerrado-Amazon transition

Information on the effects of prescribed burning in forest areas is essential for numerous environmental and forest production applications, including preventive maintenance against forest fires. In this article, we evaluated the effects generated at different interfaces (borders) of a homogeneous area of eucalyptus, after the occurrence of prescribed burns. The litter recovery and the regeneration of herbaceous material were evaluated, which may compose the combustible material for the occurrence of new fires. The forest inventory include measurements of circumference at breast height (CBH), commercial and total height, canopy density percentage, and number alive and dead trees. The percentage of herbaceous plants and litterfall differentiation were determined through photos taken in the field and subjected to pixel analysis in the Adobe Photoshop Cs6 program. The litterfall was classified into leaves, barks, and branches, and the herbaceous plants was subjected to identification and quantification of phytosociological variables. The prescribed fire did not affect the survival and development of trees, since the values were consistent with the community age. Leaves represented the highest litterfall fraction (47.69%) and thick branches the lowest (1.79%), both in the eucalyptus/agriculture interface. The herbaceous plants totalized 120 individuals, with predominance of grass species and had higher abundance in the eucalyptus/agriculture and eucalyptus/forest interfaces.