Article
"CHAPTER 33. REFORESTATION AND NATURAL SUCCESSION AS TOOLS. FOR RESTORATION ON ABANDONED PASTURES. IN THE ANDES OF SOUTH ECUADOR"
"KEYWORDS BIODIVERSITY ECUADOR NATIVE SPECIES REFORESTATION RESTORATION-ISBN 978-3-642-1998-1 TROPICAL FORESTRY 8"
Autor
AGUIRRE MENDOZA, NIKOLAY ARTURO
Ximena Palomeque, Michael Weber
Bernd Stimm, Sven G€unter
Institución
Resumen
Ecuador is one of the global hot spots of biodiversity. Nevertheless, it
faces high deforestation rates and unsustainable land use resulting in a substantial
and growing amount of degraded land, which needs to be rehabilitated for productivity
and biodiversity purposes. We present the results of a reforestation experiment
within a gradient of three successional phases after abandonment of pastoral
use. Six native species were tested against two exotics. Furthermore, we analyzed
the regeneration potential from the soil seed bank and monitored the development
of the diversity of woody species in the natural succession at the different sites.
Our results show that dependence on natural regeneration for forest recovery
cannot be an acceptable solution for forest users, due to the low speed of recovery
and the insufficient species composition of the regeneration. Planted seedlings of
native species are able to cope with the harsh conditions if they are selected
according to their adaptation to the environmental characteristics of the respective
planting sites.