Caracterización de la lluvia de semillas en unidades de manejo priorizadas para la restauración ecológica del bosque seco tropical

Abstract

Tropical dry forests are one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world and the lack of seed dispersal is a factor limiting its restoration, and however it is a subject little studied. With the objective to characterize the rain of seeds in five types of cover: open pasture dominated by exotic invasive grasses, pasture in regeneration, shrubbery, forest and forest border, in the biotic compensation area of El Quimbo Hydroelectric Project Huila, 87 seed traps were installed in transects, which were distributed from the edge of forest vegetation and at distances of 5, 15, 25, 50, 75, 125 m open pasture and shrubbery. At the interior of forest and pasture in regeneration, transects were distributed each 20 m. Material was collected every fifteen days for three months, this period included the transition between dry and rainy seasons. 16755 seeds were collected, 5852 during wet period and 10903 during dry period. Open pasture showed the highest density with 457.44 seeds/m2, while the lowest density was found in forest with 35.71 seeds/m2. Shrubbery showed the highest species number (49). Anemochory was the dispersion syndrome with greater richness while the epizoochory whit greater abundance. Open pasture and shrubbery are the main sources of propagules on seeds rain, while contribution of species belonging to the forest is minimal.