Fire and flooding resilience in Mimosa L. of the Brazilian Pantanal

Abstract

The Pantanal ecoregion, in south-central Brazil, is one of the largest foodplains in the world. Cycles of fooding and periodic fre have been determinant to the diversity of species in the ecoregion. In the fora of Pantanal, Leguminosae is one of the most rich families, and Mimosa is its most diversifed genus. Species of this genus are widely distributed and occur in the capões, sandy ridges and monominant stands (e.g. Cambarazal, Carandazal and Paratudal), in addition to native grasslands and pasture areas. In the Cerrado ecoregion, adaptations to fre have been recognized in some species of Mimosa. However, there is no data in the Pantanal ecoregion about which species of Mimosa are resilient to fre and/or fooding. This study aimed to investigate morphological adaptation in Mimosa in terms of resilience to fre and fooding. We verifed 45 specifc and infraspecifc taxa of Mimosa occurring in the Brazilian Pantanal, by means of the revision of literature, herbarium data, personal observations, plant collections and feld notes