Abstract
Abstract The Andes of Ecuador are one of the world's hotspots of vascular plants. These hotspot characteristics apply particularly to the divergence zone of the study site situated in the Cordillera Real near the Estacion Cientifica San Francisco (ECSF) in the northernmost part of Podocarpus National Park (3°58′S; 79°04′W). Here, family and species numbers vary considerably between primary mountain forest stands and anthropogenic sites at similar altitudes. The highest family as well as species numbers (95 and 491, respectively, at 2000–2100 m; 68 and 296 at 2400–2500 m, with sample areas of 400 m2 each) document the extraordinarily high plant diversity of primary mountain forest stands. Comparatively, on anthropogenic sites, the analogous numbers are much smaller, with only 64 families/186 species at the lower altitudinal level and 54 families/155 species at the higher altitudinal level.
Highlights
According to Barthlott et al (2007), the Andes of Ecuador constitute one of the world’s 5 megadiversity hotspots of vascular plants
The southern slopes are almost completely covered by primary mountain forest ecosystems
Natural as well as anthropogenic ecosystems in the Rio San Francisco valley in southern Ecuador are characterized by extraordinarily high numbers of vascular species
Summary
According to Barthlott et al (2007), the Andes of Ecuador constitute one of the world’s 5 megadiversity hotspots of vascular plants. Half of the estimated 20,000 Ecuadorian vascular plant species are found between 900–3000 m, this area covers only 10% of Ecuador’s surface (Balslev 1988; Jørgensen and Leon-Yanez 1999). These hotspot characteristics apply to the divergence zone of the study site situated in the Cordillera Real, where xeric to hygric climate regimes and a complex topography cause a manifold pattern of vegetation types within a distance of only 35 km. By 2008, the surprising number of 1208 seed plant species and 257 ferns (including fern allies) had been catalogued within a research area of only 1000 ha (Liede-Schumann and Breckle 2008). Natural and anthropogenic disturbances have to be considered important additional triggers for the area’s outstanding plant diversity
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