Identificación de tipos de bosques y análisis de riqueza, diversidad y productividad en la provincia de Zamora Chinchipe

Abstract

The province of Zamora Chinchipe has one of the highest rates of deforestation as a result of the expansion of the agricultural frontier, which causes the loss of natural forests. It has a large area of forest remanence and ecosystems that deserve to be managed and conserved. Methodologically, we used variables of species composition, values of abundance and multivariate ordering techniques were applied. The identified forests were characterized according to parameters of composition, richness, diversity, structure and production; The parameters evaluated were analyzed using non-parametric Krusall-Wallis tests. Association relationships between forest types previously identified with environmental and topographic variables were established through principal component analysis, nonparametric Mantel tests, and Variance Partition analysis. Results were identified 5 types of forests that were validated by analysis of similarities ANOSIM. The most important ecologically important species according to the Value and Importance Index (IVI) contain different species belonging to different ecological guilds. The Mantel tests and the analysis of partition of the variance showed that the environmental variables were the ones that explained the variation in the composition of species, structure and production. We conclude that in the province of Zamora Chinchipe exist different forest ecosystems, located in different geographic spaces and that have different attributes in its vegetation in both richness, structure and biomass. These stocks would enable the future to value their resources efficiently and undertake management and conservation actions