CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Even though wetlands are valuable environments, they suffer heavy exploitation and transformation processes that affect their biodiversity. The main goal of this study was to characterize the herbaceous plant communities associated with the southern Uruguay River flood plain. We focused on lowlands of two farms, one of which is surrounded by an embankment to prevent flooding. A random stratified sampling was performed in 72 plots. To detect distribution patterns and plant species associations a Detrended Corresponde Analysis (DCA) and a Two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) were performed. Six groups of plots were identified and ordination could be attributed to the flooding preferences of dominant species. Herbaceous communities developing in modified environments showed the highest overall richness and diversity with the ingression of invasive species and formed a homogeneous patch. Non-modified communities showed lower richness and diversity values but, from a floristic and environmental point of view, they formed a heterogeneous mosaic.