Estudio de la diversidad florística del ecosistema páramo en la cima Cuartel de los Incas, ubicada en el nevado Chimborazo, cantón Riobamba, provincia de Chimborazo.

Abstract

The research aimed to determine the floristic diversity of the moorland ecosystem in the ummit Cuartel of the Incas, located in the Chimborazo mount, Riobamba canton, Chimborazo province; GLORIA project methodology was used with modifications, at the highest 3x3 meters quadrants were installed in the four cardinal points at five meters of height of the summit, in which four subplots of one square meter were evaluated, using a mesh divided into 100 squares of one square centimeter; to determine the annual wind direction and speed, meteorological data from the last six years that were interpolated by the Kriging method was used. A total of 21 species, 17 genera and 11 families were recorded at the top. The families Asteraceae, Caprifolacea, Gentilaceae had a greater number of individuals and the species with the highest percentage of importance value index (IVI) were Calamagrostis intermedia, The North and South side presented significant statistical difference for wealth due to the presence of Hipericum lancioides, which is the dominant and leafy species on the north side. The south and east sides presented a vegetation of lower height with percentages of similar vegetation cover this is due to the behavior of the wind which impacts on the southeast face (windward) of the top, providing similar conditions for vegetation growing, the results of the research were similar to other studies, but the data is not comparable due to the use of various methodologies, so it is necessary to establish standard methodologies.