Ecological limits of the highland forest in the Chimborazo Fauna Production Reserve using multivariate statistical techniques; Basis for the economic valuation of its environmental services

Abstract

Among the main terrestrial habitats are forests that present great diversity and endemism, despite their importancedue to the socioeconomic and ecological benefits they provide to human populations, they are vulnerable to modifications generatedby global changes de-rived from anthropogenic activities, and climate change that affect this important eco-system, Mitigating the effects of this entails a great responsibility that must be based on knowledge. To understand the dynamics of the evergreen forest plant formation of the páramo in the Chimborazo Fauna Production Reserve, we set out to characterize these ecosystems with respect to various environmental and forest variables through different multivariate statistical techniques. The factors evaluated were structure and composition. Forest information was obtained in 12 plots (with a total area of 4.32 ha). Univariate de-scriptive statistics allowed to determine the optimal and marginal habitat, the cluster analysis determined three similar groups according to forest characteristics, the principal components analysis showed that temperature (BIO 7) and precipitation (BIO 14) are the main variables that explain the distribution of forest species in the areas, the analysis of multiple correspondences allowed to determine that the relicts of evergreen forest of the páramo located in the parish Pilahuin contain forest species with optimal conservation characteristics.