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Recent Topics Posters

Díaz , Nidia Mendoza [1], Flores Olvera, Hilda [1].

Diversity of plants and types of vegetation in a region of Sierra Sur, Oaxaca (Santa Maria Sola).

A floristic list and a general characterization of the vegetation types of Santa Maria Sola, Oaxaca, Mexico are provided. This region occupies 52.89 km2 and lies at an elevation of 1400-2500 m within the Sierra Sur, a physiographic region located in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas that is, considered an important center of endemism for several groups of organisms. Nevertheless, this region has been poorly explored, especially in Oaxaca where only a single systematic study of the flora and vegetation has been done for a small area. To expand knowledge of the flora and vegetation of Oaxaca, we collected 572 specimens from October 2010 to December 2011 in Santa Maria Sola, located in Sola de Vega district. We documented 92 families, 251 genera and 377 species at this site. The most diverse families are Asteraceae (48 spp.), Fabaceae (47 spp.), Rubiaceae (16 spp.) and Apocynaceae (13 spp.). The most diverse genera are: Quercus (Fagaceae) and Salvia (Lamiaceae) with eight species, Desmodium (Fabaceae), Peperomia (Piperaceae) and Solanum (Solanaceae) with six species; and Asclepias (Apocynaceae), Crusea (Rubiaceae), Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) and Stevia (Asteraceae), with five species each. The flora of Santa Maria Sola is further characterized by a) species with distributions restricted to Oaxaca and other states of Mexico, such as Chiapas and Guerrero (11 spp.), b) species endemic to Oaxaca (9 spp.) and c) four species endemic to Santa Maria Sola in the genera Bouvardia (Rubiaceae), Polianthes (Asparagaceae), Peperomia (Piperaceae) and Populus (Salicaceae), all of which are described as new. An additional eight species formerly not reported as growing in this area were collected during the course of this study. The dominant plant life-form in the region is herbs (195 spp.), followed by trees (67 spp.) and shrubs (59 spp.). Based on the floristic elements and the physiognomy of the plant communities, five vegetation types are recognized: 1) pine forest (2400 m), 2) pine-oak forest (1800-2200 m), 3) oak forest (1600-2200 m),4) tropical deciduous forest (1400-1700 m) and 5) Taxodium riparian forest (1400 m). Oak forest and tropical deciduous forest occupy the largest areas and have the highest diversity (193 and 203 spp., respectively). The tropical deciduous forest was found to be the most disturbed of all vegetation types. We estimate that our collections represent 94% of the potential diversity of the flora of Santa Maria Sola based on the Incidence-based Coverage Estimator of species richness (ICE).

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1 - Universidad Autónoma de México, Instituto de Biología , Departamento de Botánica, Apartado postal 70367, Ciudad Universitaria, Distrito Federal, 04510, México

Keywords:
Oaxaca, México
Plant biodiversity
flora
Vegetation
Floristic.

Presentation Type: Recent Topics Poster
Session: P
Location: Battelle South/Convention Center
Date: Monday, July 9th, 2012
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: PRT027
Abstract ID:1320


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