SEMIDECIDUAL SECUNDÁRIA CONSIDERANDO O SEU POTENCIAL DE USO PARA RECUPERAÇÃO AMBIENTAL 1

ABSTRACT – Considering its potential use in degraded environments, this study characterized the compositionof a seed bank obtained fr om an ar ea of typical secondar y succession on the Federal University of V icosacampus. Infer ences wer e made whether this indicator r eflects futur e sustainability , given the seed bank’ s potentialfor revegetating degraded sites. Its floristic composition was compared with indices obtained in other similarseed bank studies. The specific site is located at the Mata da Garagem woods, a 40-year old forest fragmentcovering a low ridge parallel to a campus r oadway . Twenty seed bank samples wer e collected fr om randomlyselected points, each sample consisting of four subsamples. The experiment was installed on the campus nurseryusing 20 wooden boxes (50x50x15cm). After 90 days, 508 individual plants were counted, and 38 specieswere identified, as belonging to 34 genera distributed among 22 families. The diversity index (H’) is 2.1 1;whereas the equability (J) value of 0.67 is considered high compared to other seed bank studies. Cecropiahololeuca (28.9%) and Solanum erianthum (18,7%) are indicated as the most important species within theforest regeneration process. Results suggest that the seed bank studied indeed has the potential for promotingand guaranteeing an ecological succession process dynamics on degraded lands of similar ecosystems.Keywor ds: Seed bank, for est litter and envir onmental r ecover y.