Species studied
The three species studied belong to the genus Myrcia , family
Myrtaceae, subfamily Myrtoideae. Myrtaceae presents the highest number
of species in tropical rainforests (Oliveira-Filho and Fontes, 2000) and
is considered a characteristic family in the Brazilian Atlantic coastal
forest (Lucas and Bünger, 2015). In the study plot, there are 21
Myrtaceae species, seven belonging to Myrcia (Joly et al. ,
2012). The three species studied have 50 or more individuals in the plot
(individuals with stem diameter at breast height ≥ 4.8 cm; data from the
Functional Gradient Project Biota/FAPESP 03/12595-7 – available upon
request).
The three species are not geographically restricted to therestinga forest and are widely distributed in the Atlantic Forest
(Fig. 1). In the study plot, they occupy different canopy strata.Myrcia brasiliensis occupies the first stratum and also occurs as
an emergent tree; M. multiflora occupies the first and second
strata, and M. racemosa occupies the first stratum (Pedroni,
2001). The three species increase water capitation in the soil at 50 cm
depth and reduce the use of topsoil water (10 cm depth) from the flooded
to the dry period. In the dry period, the species show a similar use of
water sources, but M. racemosa capitates a higher proportion of
water at 30-cm depth (Antunes, 2018). The similar water use suggests
that the three Myrcia species are restricted to similar
environments in the periodically flooded restinga forest studied
here, but we lack knowledge on other traits to hypothesize whether the
species present similar niches.