Abstract

EDUARDO-PALOMINO, Fiorella; CHUQUILLANQUI, Héctor; NAJARRO, Pablo  and  LINARES-PALOMINO, Reynaldo. Contribution to the vascular flora and vegetation from Torobamba (Ayacucho) and Pampas (Apurímac) inter-andean dry valleys, southern Peru. Ecol. apl. [online]. 2017, vol.16, n.2, pp.115-125. ISSN 1726-2216.  http://dx.doi.org/10.21704/rea.v16i2.1015.

We present a first approximation to vegetation and vascular flora from the Torobamba and Pampas dry valleys in Ayacucho and Apurímac, southern Peru. We used intensive modified Whittaker plots and nonsystematic surveys to record 91 vascular plant species and morph species. Five of these are endemic and four are considered as threatened in the current Peruvian legislation. Asteraceae and Poaceae were the most representative families (14.3% and 13% of all species, respectively). The predominant life-form was herbs (60%). We recorded 60 species at the Pampas river valley plots and 63 species at the Torobamba plots. The most abundant and dominant species was Eriotheca cf. vargasii (Malvaceae, 49% - 63% of all individuals in the plots), an endemic species of these southern valleys. Our data suggest that the most diverse area is located at the Apurimac valley. Even so, the forest patches located at higher elevations and away from this diversity center are not necessarily a floristic subset. The dry forest patches in the Pampas and Torobamba inter-Andean valleys share only one to three species with those at Apurimac, suggesting high beta diversity values. Therefore, in order to conserve these dry forests focusing in the protection of the most diverse zone seems not to be enough. Rather a conservation corridor connecting forest patches along the entire altitudinal gradient seems to be the best option.

Keywords : endemism; floristic relationships; inter-Andean dry forest; species richness; plots; quantitative inventories.

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