Efeito da exploração florestal na formação de clareiras em uma área de manejo florestal comercial

Abstract

The importance of tropical forest management is related to the maintenance of natural forest cover, inhibiting deforestation and fires, and promoting interest in sustainable forest management. Forest monitoring is an important tool for planning silviculture, stimulating natural regeneration of species of interest, and avoiding more costly silvicultural treatments. Clearings are a natural phenomenon that contribute to ecosystem diversity and provide vital space for the regeneration of pioneer plants. Clearings with different profiles allow groups of species to specialize in establishing themselves according to each profile. Therefore, there is a need to monitor the formation of clearings resulting from forest exploration, defining technical coefficients that define their profile. Thus, a study was conducted in the Annual Production Unit (APU) of a corporate forest management area, located in the Municipality of Itapiranga - AM, exploited in the year 2022. Four temporary 40 ha plots were installed, subdivided into four 10 ha field units, with the objective of analyzing the structure of clearings formed by forest harvesting, dimensioning the size of the clearings formed, quantifying the frequency of clearings in size classes and analyzing the correlation of dendrometric parameters, as well as the harvesting techniques used, in the formation of these clearings. A total of 351 clearings sampled from 4 plots were evaluated at a 95% probability level and 20% error. We defined the clearings formation profile, observing that the distribution of clearings areas showed a predominantly small size structure, which is in agreement with tropical forest studies. No correlation was found between canopy opening and the dendrometric variables of volume and DBH. The felling techniques employed in the logging process were effective. It was also possible to observe that the size of clearings can vary according to species, and this may be related to several factors.