Apoyo técnico a la caracterización de la lluvia de semillas en el predio Hacienda Las Mercedes, gestionado por el Jardín Botánico de Bogotá José Celestino Mutis en la línea de restauración ecológica

Abstract

Seed rain is an important mechanism of natural regeneration in ecological restoration areas that have been altered and degraded, affecting their structure, function and composition. Such is the case of the Las Mercedes forest, located in the Thomas van der Hammen Productive Forest Reserve in the Suba district. Since 2014 the JBB has been developing connectivity processes involving the forest and the La Conejera Wetland through ecological restoration strategies such as the introduction of native species and the implementation of multi-layered corridors. Seed rain research provides very useful information for the management and sustainability of this forest, and to carry out this methodology 11 transects were installed in the multi-strata corridors established since 2014 and 11 in the grasslands adjacent to the corridors, each with a length of 25 m; seed traps were also installed at each point of the transects (A and B). The monitoring, opening, collection, cleaning, counting and classification of the seeds was carried out during 4 months, where these activities were supported by the internship together with the organization of databases of the characterization of the vegetation and the data obtained from the seed collection. As for the results, a total of 14718 seeds were obtained, classified into 53 species and 18 families. The species with the highest abundance was Baccharis latifolia with 11747 seeds, followed by Alnus acuminata with 950 seeds, due to its anemochorous dispersal mechanisms and the morphology of its seeds.