INFLUÊNCIA DA PRECIPITAÇÃO NOS MANGUEZAIS DA BARRA DO RIBEIRA – IGUAPE/SP

The mangrove, coastal ecosystem defined as a transition between terrestrial and marine environment is characterized as a salinized environment with a constant flooding caused by tides. Emphasizing the System area Coastal Cananeia - Iguape, its importance is related to the biomass production, inserted into the natural bioenergetics system, increasing the productivity of the coastal zone with the introduction of organic particles. This means vegetal communities are adapted to many physical conditionants the active in the coastal zones, including the climate conditionants. This article is part of a larger work, which purpose is contributes to the comprehension of variability of the climatic attributes and their influence on the mangrove vegetation. Here are presented the data and analysis of the precipitation and interception of rain by the canopy of the mangrove forest located in Barra do Ribeira-Iguape/SP. A microclimatic tower was installed with two meteorological stations and each one had rain gauge to obtain an analysis of the variation of precipitation above and below the canopy of mangrove. More sixteen rain gauges were installed in an area of 400 m². Our research results shows that in microclimatic scales the main control for the variation of climatic attributes is the canopy, mainly in rainfall distribution below the canopy, which consequently influences in the distribution of vegetables species in the environment. It was found also that the amount of rainfall that effectively reaches the ground and how this is redistributed within the environment depends on the density of the canopy and its twigs and trunks. To the mangrove this process is important because the amount of rain that effectively reaches the soil helps to reduce salinity in the environment and is determinant for the type of predominant species in the mangrove. This project counted on the financing of the CNPq, process referring number 470434/2006-6 to the proclamation MCT/CNPq 02/2006 - Universal.