Retenção hídrica da serrapilheira como indicador para avaliar o desempenho de projetos de restauração florestal em PSA Hídrico: estudo de caso no Projeto Rio Sesmaria, Resende - RJ

Abstract

The litter is a compartment of the forest ecosystem that cushions the impact of the drops of water from the rains and retains a part of them, decreasing the surface runoff. This work aimed to evaluate the water retention capacity of the litter as an indicator for monitoring the performance of water payment for environmental services (PES) initiatives involving forest restoration. Four rural properties covered by the Rio Sesmaria Project in the municipality of Resende - RJ were evaluated. The methodology consisted of field investigation according to the DER method of the Procedures Manual de Procedimentos para o Monitoramento de ÁreasemRestauraçãoFlorestal no Estado do Rio de Janeiro, and the collection of litter samples, the latter beinglater submitted to laboratory analysis for evaluation of water retention capacity and statistical analysis. Through the “calculadora da restauraçãoflorestal” it was possible to verify that the areas in the process of restoration are progressing satisfactorily in the resumption of the ecological processes essential to achieve the stability of the systems in the long term,a Fazenda Santa Helena obtained a final concept of 7.50, Racho Bela Vista 6.57, Sítio São Jorge 6.57 and SítioMocambo5.64. There was no statistically significant difference in the amount of water retained by the litter between the four properties,the median being 159.95%. So for considering litter water retention as an indicator of water improvements in monitoring the performance of water PES initiatives involving forest restoration, more studies are needed to enable the establishment of a classification system, which does not exist for these, identifying retention percentages and specifying which values would be considered critical, minimal or suitable for areas undergoing forest restoration, based on the plant physiology of the intervention areas. It is concluded that the absence of historical series in areas undergoing forest restoration is a limiting factor in the implementation of litter water retention as an indicator of water improvement in these projects, making it necessary to continue investigations and studies on this theme.