02434naa a2200265 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001902200140006010000180007424501560009226000090024852016460025765000190190365000260192265000130194865000160196165300250197765300270200270000170202970000170204670000160206370000140207970000180209377300570211120057142015-01-15       2014    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d  a0304-38001 aBLANCO, C. C.  aFeedbacks between vegetation and disturbance processes promotelong-term persistence of forest-grassland mosaics in south Brazil.h[electronic resource]  c2014  aVegetation changes, such as shrub encroachment and forest expansion over grasslands, prairies andsavannas have been related to changes in climatic (mainly rainfall and temperature) and atmosphericconditions (CO2concentration). However, a longstanding question in ecology is how mosaics of forestsand open-canopy ecosystems could persist over millennia in sites where climatic conditions favor forests.Here we tested the influence of interactions between grass-tree competition, environmental hetero-geneity (topography), seed dispersal, initial density and spatial aggregation of vegetation patches anddisturbance behavior (fire) on the long-term coexistence of forests and grasslands in South Brazil. Forthis, we incorporated the adaptive dynamic global vegetation model (aDGVM) into a spatially explicitmodeling approach (2D-aDGVM). Our results showed that recurrent disturbance related to grasses such asfires plays a key role in maintaining the long-term coexistence of forests and grasslands, mainly throughfeedbacks between disturbance frequency and grass biomass. Topographic heterogeneity affected therate of forest expansion by adding spatio-temporal variability in vegetation-fire feedbacks. However, thespatial pattern and connectivity of fire-prone (grasslands) and fire-sensitive (forest) vegetation patcheswere more important to maintain the long-term coexistence of both alternative vegetation states thanthe initial proportion of forest and grasslands patches. The model is the first individual-based DGVM toconsider the combined effects of topography, seed dispersal and fire spread behavior in a spatially explicitapproach.  aseed dispersal  aDispersão de semente  aPastagem  aSimulação  aPastagem subtropical  aSubtropical grasslands1 aSCHEITER, S.1 aSOSINSKI, E.1 aFIDELIS, A.1 aANAND, M.1 aPILLAR, V. P.  tEcological Modellinggv. 291, p. 224-232, Nov. 2014.