Uso e disponibilidade de recursos vegetais em uma comunidade rural no semiárido da paraíba: testando a hipótese da aparência ecológica

Abstract

The Caatinga, which comprises much of the semiarid regions, are represented by a dry-type shrubby vegetation, shrubs and trees that support accented index of aridity, low amounts of annual rainfall and high temperatures for much of the year. This environment is home to a great diversity of species, including endemic (Bernardes, 1999; Giulietti et al., 2002), and has an area of approximately 800 000 km2, extending from the Plateau Borborema to the Tropical Atlantic Facade (Alves, 2009, Albuquerque et al., 2012). The appearance of ecological hypothesis was proposed by Fenny (1976), Rhoades and Cates (1976), in the 70's, to explain the relationship of herbivores on plants. Based on the premise of this hypothesis, the authors cited above where the plants organized into two categories, the apparent plants (woody plants and herbaceous large) and not apparent (small herbaceous and woody species in early development and succession). The community Pau D'Arco in which this study was conducted is located in the municipality of Itaporanga Paraíba in northeastern Brazil, located in the region Sertão and micro Vale Piancó, having a land area of 468 km2, located in coordinates (7 º 18'14'' S and 38 º 09'00'' W), with an altitude of 191 m above sea level (IBGE, 2010). The calculation was performed considering three ways of collecting and processing the data, sendoVUatual, and VUpotencial VUgeral. We recorded 36 species, 16 genera and 12 families, organized in ten categories of use, excelling technology with 21 species, followed by construction (17) and fuel (13). When observed the use of quotes stood out building with 244 citations (155 being current and potential 89), followed by technology (233, 100 and 133 current and potential) and fuel (109 with 92 current and 17 potential), these results show the wide use of wood products by communities and a possible use of pressure exerted on the species used for such purposes (Table 2). The species had higher rates of use were Amburana Ceará (Allemção) A. C. Sam and Anadenanthera colubrina (Vell.) Brenan with 5.33 for VUgeral, Mimosa pigra L.com 3.93 for VUatual and A. cearensis with 2.20 to VUpotencial. The hypothesis of ecological appearance apparently looks better explain the use of timber resources in the community of Pau D'Arco. The differentiation in the calculation of value in use showed different results with respect to Hypothesis Testing, reinforcing the need for such a distinction in future studies to test the ecological appearance, as well as those designed to obtain information about the actual use of plant resources Caatinga.