Abstract
The Evergreen forest type develops along the Valdivian and North-Patagonian phytogeographical regions of the south-central part of Chile (38° S–46° S). These evergreen forests have been scarcely studied south of 43° S, where there is still a large area made up of old-growth forests. Silvicultural proposals for the Evergreen forest type have been based on northern Evergreen forests, so that the characterization of the structure and composition of southern Evergreen forests, e.g., their typification, would aid in the development of appropriate silvicultural proposals for these forests. Based on the tree composition of 46 sampled plots in old-growth forests in an area of >1000 ha in southern Chiloé Island (43° S), we used multivariate analyses to define forest groups and to compare these forests with other evergreen forests throughout the Archipelago of North-Patagonia. We determined that evergreen forests of southern Chiloé correspond to the North-Patagonian temperate rainforests that are characterized by few tree species of different shade tolerance growing on fragile soils. We discuss the convenience of developing continuous cover forest management for these forests, rather than selective cuts or even-aged management that is proposed in the current legislation. This study is a contribution to forest classification for both ecologically- and forestry-oriented purposes.
Highlights
Ecological land classification is a primary need for land use allocations
The tree species composition from the present study showed a greater similarity to the North-Patagonian forests of the Taitao Peninsula (JI = 0.538) and the North-Patagonian forest studied by Gutierrez et al [13] (JI = 0.529) as compared with the forests of central and northern Chiloé (JI mean = 0.293)
This study provides evidence to indicate that the latitudinal ecotone between Valdivian and North-Patagonian forests within the Evergreen forest type occurs around the center of Chiloé (43° S), confirming the limit suggested by other authors between these two physiographic regions [15,32]
Summary
Ecological land classification is a primary need for land use allocations. Ecosystem classifications segregate the landscape based on the interactions of climate, physiography, soils, and vegetation, under the rationale that the landscape is “conceived as ecosystems, large and small, nested within one another into a hierarchy of spatial sizes” [1]. In its lower hierarchy levels, ecological land classification aims to have a precise description of forest types and subtypes in order to facilitate forest management and silvicultural planning [4], following the logic that the smallest operational ecosystem unit is where sustainable forestry starts [5]. These forest types were defined on the basis of geographical distribution, environment, relative importance of species composition, and timber volumes and average productivity [6].
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