Environmental changes in biodiversity hotspot ecosystems of
South Ecuador: RESPonse and feedback effECTs (FOR2730)

Abstract:

Tropical dry forests (TDFs) are often degraded and fragmented through human impact, which is also the case in Southern Ecuador, where land-use pressure is high. In this context we studied tree species composition and forest structure in a protected and adjacent disturbed TDF at altitudes between 560-1080 m asl. Fabaceae and Malvaceae were identified as the most important tree families in both forest types. The disturbed forest displayed lower tree species richness than the protected forest, and the gap in species richness between the two forest types increased with increasing altitude. Ten species of the protected forest were not recorded in the disturbed forest, two of them endemic. The disturbed site was further characterized by a lower number of stems but with larger diameters, in comparison with the protected forest. The majority of the most abundant tree species in the disturbed forest had rather low wood densities, but also the combination of high wood density with browsing tolerance and high resprouting capacity was encountered, and seems to be advantageous for getting established in such sites. Although certain tree species were well represented in the disturbed forest, some endemic species with relatively low abundances (e.g. Simira ecuadorensis, Prockia crucis) should receive more conservation attention.