Caracterización de ecotonos entre biomas de bosque y biomas abiertos en un área protegida en Uruguay

Verónica Etchebarne-Palla; Oscar Blumetto; Ángel M. Segura; Ariel A. Farías; Laura Cappuccio; Álvaro Soutullo

doi:10.25260/EA.22.32.2.0.1801

Authors

Verónica Etchebarne-Palla Departamento de Ecología y Gestión Ambiental, Centro Universitario de la Región Este, Universidad de la República. Maldonado, Uruguay. Área Biodiversidad y Conservación, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura. Montevideo, Uruguay
Oscar Blumetto Programa de Producción y Sustentabilidad Ambiental, Estación Experimental INIA Las Brujas, Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria. Canelones, Uruguay
Ángel M. Segura Modelización y Análisis de recursos naturales, Centro Universitario Regional Este, Universidad de la República. Rocha, Uruguay
Ariel A. Farías Departamento de Ecología y Gestión Ambiental, Centro Universitario de la Región Este, Universidad de la República. Maldonado, Uruguay. Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES), P. Universidad Catoìlica de Chile. Santiago, Chile
Laura Cappuccio Departamento de Ecología y Gestión Ambiental, Centro Universitario de la Región Este, Universidad de la República. Maldonado, Uruguay
Álvaro Soutullo Departamento de Ecología y Gestión Ambiental, Centro Universitario de la Región Este, Universidad de la República. Maldonado, Uruguay

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.22.32.2.0.1801

Keywords:

trees, shrubs, livestock, fire, sheep, cattle, grasslands, shrublands, conservation

Abstract

Alternative Biome States theory (ABS) helps to explain the presence of open biomes (grasslands, shrublands) in environments sufficiently warm and humid for the development of forest biomes. In these environments it is possible to find areas dominated by open biomes that, according to this theory, respond mainly to fire and herbivory. The aims of this work are to identify whether there are different types of forest biome-open biome ecotones based on woody composition, describe them and explore their relationship with livestock management and environmental variables, using a protected area in Uruguay as a case study. We sampled woody vegetation and other environmental variables in transects (delimited in 200m) in 10 sites across four livestock management systems. We identified two types of forest biome-open biome ecotones, one dominated by shrubland and the other dominated by grassland. Our results agree with the ABS theory and suggest the mechanisms determining the woody composition and the structure of the ecotone vegetation are cattle and use of fire and/or rotary cutter. The changes in vegetation structure and woody richness were partly abrupt, which is consistent with what is proposed by the ABS theory. However, the composition also interacted with site factors such as rockiness and distance to the watercourse, suggesting that site-level environmental variables are acting synergistically with vegetation removal to determine vegetation composition. We found that these ecotones are sensitive to management and environmental variables; so, it is necessary to incorporate this landscape and site heterogeneity to articulate productive activity with nature conservation.

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