Effects of Different Simulated Management Intensities on The Genetic Diversity of a Heart-of-palm Tree Natural Population (Euterpe edulis Martius)

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of selective logging on genetic diversity and inbreeding a heart-of-palm tree (Euterpe edulis), simulating different cutting intensities. To detect the effects of logging, we first performed the genetic characterization of the reproductive plants present in 24 plots that were allocated in Ibirama-SC, Brazil. For the genetic characterization we used allozyme markers, and for simulating the occurrence of different cutting intensities (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 150 seed-trees/ha) we performed 1000 resamplings within the total seed-tree group (599). Thus, it was possible to compare the genetic diversity among the different cutting intensities and the unmanaged population, through alterations to the allelic frequencies, heterozygosity, loss of alleles and increase in the inbreeding. The results of genetic indexes for different cutting intensity were variable, but all presented the same tendency towards genetic diversity reduction when the density of the seed-trees/ha was reduced. The results show that the density of 60 seed-trees/ha, or higher are the most indicated when the objective is to utilize this natural resource in a sustainable way as regards the management issues, because they did not present loss of alleles or reduction in the number of polymorphic loci, and also because they presented the lowest reductions in the observed and expected heterozygosity index and fixation index.