Propuesta de un plan de restauración ecológica en la Estación Experimental La Belleza, basado en la selección de especies claves vegetales según los mecanismos de dispersión de semillas

Abstract

In La Belleza Experimental Station (EELB), degraded areas have been identified due to anthropogenic intervention and lack of administrative management, which has led to the loss of biodiversity of plant and animal species and the decrease of ecosystem services characteristic of this area; for this reason, the objective of this study was to propose an Ecological Restoration Plan in the EELB, based on the selection of key species according to the mechanisms of seed dispersal. For this, the experimental station was divided into five quadrants, a reference ecosystem and a mostly disturbed area were defined, the status of both localities was evaluated, then a botanical inventory was carried out to determine abundance and equity indexes, seed traps and bird monitoring were also used for the selection of key species, with the information collected an Ecological Restoration Plan was elaborated based on three consecutive phases of planting species with different growth rates. The EELB presented 126 botanical species belonging to 50 families: 67 native and 59 exotics, 67 catalogued as forest (high altitude) and 59 as shrubs (medium and low altitude), the most intervened zone presented indices of 1.84 and 0.70 respectively for Shannon and Pielou; while the reference ecosystem presented indices of 2.85 and 0.85, respectively. In conclusion, an Ecological Restoration Plan was elaborated based on three consecutive phases of planting species with different growth speed: shrub, fast and medium growth forest, and slow growth forest. It was recommended to carry out the Ecological Restoration Plan immediately to prevent the degradation of the EELB from intensifying and extending its borders.