Influência de carboidratos não-estruturais sobre o rebrotamento de espécies arbóreas da Caatinga

Abstract

In the absence of environmental or anthropic stress, plant species present different strategies to storage reserves in the different plant compartments, mainly in the roots. However, non-structural carbohydrates content (NSCs) may change with the plant need to recover biomass after disturbances. In the present work, we verified how NSCs changed after defoliation events. The experiment was carried with juvenile individuals, some of which suffered total defoliation while others had their leaf biomass maintained. Juvenile plants of the Caatinga presented several strategies in the allocation of CNEs after defoliation. A. cearensis and C. vitifolium species reduced their starch concentrations after defoliation, indicating the use of storage starch for biomass recovery. The other species preserved their root CNEs, demonstrating a more conservative strategy. A positive relationship was found between CNE contents and water storage in the roots. This indicates that the maintenance of high CNE storage in Caatinga plant species may be related not only to biomass recovery after grazing, but also as an important mechanism for root water storage.