Estructura y diversidad de dos fragmentos del bosque de espinal en córdoba, un ecosistema amenazado

Abstract

At the beginning of XX century, Córdoba had extensive woodland areas. At present, due to massive deforestation and agriculture expansions, it has one of the highest rates of global deforestation, leaving only small fragments of Espinal woodland. This problem led to the investigation of structure, floristic composition and diversity of two woodland fragments of Espinal present at the Catholic University of Córdoba. We measured woodland structure over the entire surface of the fragments in squares of 20 × 20 m. In each fragment we performed complete floristic surveys in 10 randomly selected squares. Of all the trees, there were 45% of Prosopis spp., 17% of Celtis ehrenbergiana, 15% of Acacia spp., 14%of Geoffraea decorticans, 7%of others natives and 2%of alien species. The average richness per square was 74.9 species, being higher in the periphery than in the centre of the fragment, and different between both fragments. There were differences in the floristic composition among the periphery and the centre fragments and among the two fragments. Our results provided valuable information for the management and restoration of one of the most threatened ecosystem in Argentina.