Establecimiento de un banco de semillas del Bosque Palitahua, en la provincia de Chimborazo, cantón Penipe, sector Aguas Termales.

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to set a seed bank of the Palictahua forest, located in Puela, Penipe canton, Chimborazo province. The starting point on this research was the process of georeferencing of the study area in a forest of 181.41 hectares, by using a Garmin GPS, 64S, with two transects of 40 m spanning an area of 212.13 m2, where soil samples of 0.001327 m3, and 0.01327 m2 were collected. These samples were deposited, prior to a screening of wooden trays whose area and volume were 0.135m2, and 0.027m3 respectively. Subsequently the species that emerged were identified, according their family, genus, and species which were herborized, identifying a total of 11 families, 15 genera, 23 species, determining an arboreal species (citharexylum sp.), two shrubs of the genus Bacharis and Rubus, and several herbaceous species, from which Bohmeria sp is the most abundant with 122 individuals, and Rubus sp (shrub) with 76 individuals. Asteraceae is a genus found in a 29.13%, followed by Caryophyllacea with 13.04%. The diversity rates were characterized by having a community with a trend to be moderately diverse, while the similarity rate between the two transects in comparison is 56.25%, which revealed that despite the distance between transects, there is a variability of species between the sample units. While the emergence patterns of seedlings were characterized by having one of the most dominant species as a pioneer in the emergence and density reached is 366 seedlings per square meter.

Key Words: SEED BANK - ARBOREOUS SPECIES - DIVERSITY RATES