Abstract

CAVELIER, Jaime  and  SANTOS, Carolina. Efectos de plantaciones abandonadas de especies exóticas y nativas sobre la regeneración natural de un bosque montano en Colombia. Rev. biol. trop [online]. 1999, vol.47, n.4, pp.775-784. ISSN 0034-7744.

Vegetation surveys were carried out during 1994 in 0.1. ha plots in abandoned plantations of Pinus radiata, Cupressus lusitanica, Eucalyptus globulus, Alnus acuminata and in a secondary upper montane rain forest in the Central Andes of Colombia. The regeneration forest had the higher number of plant species (33) followed by the E. globulus (26) and A. acuminata (16) plantations. Abandoned plantations of P. radiata and C. lusitanica, had only three species. There were only eleven species in common between the regeneration forest and the plantation of E. globulus (Baccharis latifolia, Cordia cylindrostachya, Dunalia solanacea, Leandra melanodesma, Lippia hirsuta, Monnina angustata, Solanum aff. scorpioideum, S. aphydendron, Sphaeropteris quindiuensis, Tobouchina mollis and Verbesina nudipes), and only seven when compared to the A. acuminata plantation (Abatia parviflora, Asploddianthus pseudostuebelli, Bocconia frutescens, Leandra melanodesma, Lippia hirsuta y Solanum aff. scorpioideum y Verbesina nudipes). With the exception of Cordia cylindrostachya, Bocconia frutescens and Tibouchina mollis, all other species are understory shrubs dispersed by wind or birds. In the understory of the P. radiata plantation there was abundant regeneration of the Colombian national tree, Ceroxylon quindiuensis. Tree height and basal area were significantly higher in the P. radiata and C. lusitanica plantations than in the regeneration forest. Of the environmental and biological variables measured in this study, the accumulation of needles under P. radiata and C. lusitanica plantations, and the high biomass of fine roots under the C. lusitanica plantation, could be the main limiting factors for the establishment of a higher number of species of the native forest. The chemical properties of the soils varied greatly, and there were no consistent differences between the soils under exotic and native species.

Keywords : Alnus; Central Andes; Eucalyptus; Pinus; plantations; regeneration; tropical montane forest.