ABSTRACT
The most characteristic forest type of southern Brazil is the Araucaria Forest, strongly marked by the presence of the species Araucaria angustifolia. However, the overexploitation of the species reduced its range to 2% of its original area. Efforts must be made to support and promote its natural regeneration, seeking the preservation and sustainable use of its economic resources. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to evaluate germination, survival and predation rates of seeds and seedlings of Araucaria angustifolia, analyzed as a randomized factorial design with two factors with two levels each (type of plantation: pure/mixed; raw material: seeds/seedlings), totaling four treatments, with three replicates each. Fourteen months after planting only 17% of the seed holes contained live plants; 14% of planted seedlings survived; 60% of the seeds were consumed by animals. Seedling survival was 41.1% in the "pure" treatment and 20% in the mixed treatment. In the mixed treatment, seed losses due to fauna attack were lower (42.2%) compared to the 'pure' treatment (68.9%); the opposite behavior was observed in the case of seedlings.
Keywords:
fauna; predation; Paraná pine nuts.
