Inventario de la diversidad florística en la comunidad Reten de la zona alta de la microcuenca del rio Cebadas, cantón Guamote, provincia de Chimborazo

Abstract

The present study has collected, processed, and analyzed information on the ecosystem's flora in the Reten community's moor in the upper area of the Cebadas River micro-basin to understand its organization and floristic composition. The adapted version of the GLORIA method explicitly designed for its application in Andean moorland was used. In this approach, 45 plots of 25 m2 each were arranged, and they were divided into subplots of 1 m2, within a total area of 1000 m2, to record the coverage of the species present in each. A total of 23 families, 39 genera, and 42 species were identified. The Simpson and Shannon diversity indices obtained values of 0.6692 and 1.6481, respectively. The data collected revealed a medium diversity due to the dominance of the Poaceae family, headed mainly by the species Calamagrostis intermedia (J. Presl) Steud., followed by Agrostis perennnans (Walter) Tuck., which played a fundamental role in this ecosystem, by exercising considerable control and significantly impacting the floristic structure. Diversity could also be affected by the state of conservation and level of pre-existing disturbance in this moor, as invasive species such as Taraxacum officinale Weber, Trifolium repens L. and Rumex acetocella L. were detected. Likewise, the current overgrazing has resulted in the proliferation of the species Lachemilla orbiculata (Ruiz & Pav.) Rydb. Although classified as a herbaceous moor with a predominance of grassland, areas with high humidity levels were identified, facilitating the presence of species such as Gunnera magellanica Lam. Although the Asteraceae family presented the highest number of species, its density and importance values were significantly low.