Plant Communities and Associated Soil Types in a High Plateau of the Cordoba Mountains, Central Argentina

Abstract

The Pampa de Achala, a high plateau located in Cordoba Province, central Argentina, is the major catchment area of the region and exhibits some biogeographic peculiarities. However, little information is available on vegetation-soil relationships, considered to be of great importance for the conservation of the bio-geo-edaphic stability. This paper discusses plant communities and their associated soil conditions in a mountainous ecosystem. Seven plant communities are distinguished and the range of soil types on which they occur is described. A physiographic map gives a general idea of the spatial distribution of landforms with their corresponding soil and vegetation associations. From the analysis of the soil-vegetation relationships, it is concluded that the soil moisture regime is the principal environmental factor determining the type of vegetation community present at one particular place. This factor is a complex of variables of which soil texture, soil depth, and the hydrological position in the landscape are the most important. These variables can be arranged in an environmental gradient, ranging from shallow, sandy/rocky, dry places to deep, silty-to-clayey, wet places, in which all plant communities can be exactly situated. Successional features related to plant communities within that gradient are inferred and some conclusions drawn on the landscape stability of the area in relation to the gully erosion affecting the bottomlands.