﻿The vegetation of Chile and the EcoVeg approach in the context of the International Vegetation Classification project

Federico Luebert,Patricio Pliscoff

doi:10.3897/vcs.67893

Abstract

Aims: Chilean vegetation has previously received considerable attention, and several classifications are currently available. The most recent of these was presented for the first time in 2006 and updated in 2017 by the authors. Although widely utilized by researchers both in Chile and Latin America, this information is only available in Spanish, which hampers its usefulness for a broader scientific audience. Here, we provide an overview of the methods and the resulting classification and propose a correspondence between Chilean classification and the International Vegetation Classification (IVC) following the EcoVeg scheme. Study area: Continental Chile. Methods: Based on the criteria of the EcoVeg approach, we established a linkage of zonal and azonal vegetation units to the macrogroup level and to the formation classes of the IVC. We also generated a map to facilitate crosswalk between the classifications. Results: We recognize 23 macrogroups, 13 divisions and 11 formations of zonal vegetation, including three newly proposed macrogroups, one division and one formation. We further recognize 23 macrogroups, 23 divisions and 17 formations of intrazonal vegetation. Together, they encompass all six formation classes of natural vegetation of the IVC. We highlight those units so far not mentioned for Chile in the IVC. Finally, we provide a map of macrogroups and discuss the limitations and prospects of this approach for the classification of Chilean vegetation. Conclusions: Chilean zonal vegetation was successfully accommodated in the IVC down to the macrogroup level. The process of linking Chilean zonal vegetation and macrogroups led us to a few suggestions that may be used to improve the IVC. Taxonomic reference: Zuloaga et al. (2008). Abbreviations: IVC = International Vegetation Classification

Highlights

Chilean vegetation has been subject to several attempts of classification from both floristic and physiognomic points of view (e.g., Reiche 1907; Fuenzalida 1950; Schmithüsen1956; Oberdorfer 1960; Pisano 1966), but only during the last four decades have some studies provided mapping (Quintanilla 1983; Gajardo 1994; Luebert and Pliscoff 2006a, 2017)
The first new macrogroup is present in Chile and clearly framed within the Cool Temperate Forest & Woodland formation (1.B.2), but it does not appear as such in the International Vegetation Classification (IVC) list of macrogroups
The remaining two macrogroups required recognition because our analysis indicates that both evergreen and deciduous Magellanian forests occur under an antiboreal bioclimate, a fact that is not reflected in the IVC classification of macrogroups

Summary

Introduction

Chilean vegetation has been subject to several attempts of classification from both floristic and physiognomic points of view (e.g., Reiche 1907; Fuenzalida 1950; Schmithüsen1956; Oberdorfer 1960; Pisano 1966), but only during the last four decades have some studies provided mapping (Quintanilla 1983; Gajardo 1994; Luebert and Pliscoff 2006a, 2017). Chilean governmental conservation agencies are currently using these vegetation units to identify new protected areas through systematic conservation planning (Luebert and Pliscoff 2010; Pliscoff and Fuentes-Castillo 2011) They have been employed to assess the effects of climate change on Chilean Ecosystems (Pliscoff et al 2012; Arroyo et al 2019; Benavidez-Silva et al 2021), identifying the impacts on biodiversity of the recent 2017 mega-fires in central Chile (Pliscoff et al 2020) and to establish categories of ecosystem risk of collapse (Pliscoff 2015; Alaniz et al 2016; Luebert and Pliscoff 2017; Pliscoff et al 2019) following the recently developed IUCN guidelines (Rodríguez et al 2015). This classification has been utilised as an input in attempts to establish an ecosystem typology at supra-national level (Luebert and Pliscoff 2009; Josse 2014; Keith et al 2020), and has the potential to be adapted to the EcoVeg classification approach (Faber-Langendoen et al 2014) aimed at providing an international standard for vegetation classification (Faber-Langendoen et al 2018, 2020)

Methods

Results

Conclusion