Phytosociological Study, Diversity and Conservation Status of the Cloud Forest in the Dominican Republic.

Ana Cano Ortiz,José Carlos Piñar Fuentes,Eusebio Cano,Ricardo Quinto Canas,Carmelo Maria Musarella,Carlos José Pinto Gomes

doi:10.3390/plants9060741

Abstract

The study of the forest in rainy environments of the Dominican Republic reveals the presence of four types of vegetation formations, clearly differentiated from each other in terms of their floristic and biogeographical composition, and also significantly different from the rainforests of Cuba. This leads us to propose two new alliances and four plant associations located in northern mountain areas exposed to moisture-laden winds from the Atlantic: All. Rondeletio ochraceae-Clusion roseae (Ass. Cyatheo furfuracei-Prestoetum motanae; Ass. Ormosio krugii-Prestoetum montanae); and All. Rondeletio ochraceae-Didymopanion tremuli (Ass. Hyeronimo montanae-Magnolietum pallescentis; Hyeronimo dominguensis-Magnolietum hamorii). We pay special attention to the description of cloud forest types, since they have a high rate of endemic species, and therefore there are endemic habitats, which need special protective actions. Therefore, we apply the Shannon diversity index to characteristic, companion, non-endemic, and endemic species. As result, the association Ormosio krugii-Prestoetum montanae has a Shannon_T = 2.4 and a value of Shannon_E = 0, whereas the other 3 associations have a better conservation status with Shannon values in all cases > 0: This is due to a worse conservation status of the Eastern Cordillera, in comparison with the Central Cordillera and Sierra de Bhaoruco. Due to human activity, some areas are very poorly conserved, as evidenced by the diversity index and the presence of endemic tree and plant elements. The worst conserved in terms of the relationship between characteristic plants vegetation (cloud forest) in areas with high rainfall are in the Dominican Republic, along with its floristic diversity and state of conservation. This study has made it possible to significantly increase the botanical knowledge of this important habitat.

Highlights

The territory of the Dominican Republic (DR), with an extension of 48,198 km2 including the small adjacent islands, accounts for over two thirds of the territory of Hispaniola, an island located between parallels 17–19◦ N in the group of the Greater Antilles
Representing different types of forests; these formations are a series of plant communities in very rainy environments in the Dominican Republic (DR) located in the Sierra de Bahoruco and the Cordillera
This study in the Dominican Republic reveals the existence of different types of rainforest that are clearly differentiated by their floristic, biogeographical, and bioclimatic composition

Summary

Introduction

The territory of the Dominican Republic (DR), with an extension of 48,198 km including the small adjacent islands, accounts for over two thirds of the territory of Hispaniola, an island located between parallels 17–19◦ N in the group of the Greater Antilles. Not having phytosociological studies on the cloud forest, we have only been able to use some floristic publications, and some works on vegetation, but of physiognomic type, in which the distribution of the species is revealed. These works, which together with those of ours in which we made the distribution of more than 1500 endemic species, have helped us to tackle this work of the cloud forest. We used the Shannon index to the different groups of species of each phytosociological table (characteristics, companions, non-endemics, and endemics), to see the state of conservation

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