Conservation of palm forests in Northwestern Argentina: prioritization criteria.

PUECHAGUT, P. B., POLITI, N., BELLIS, L. M. Y RIVERA, L. O

Congreso; 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.; 2012

Palm forests of Copernicia alba in Northwestern Argentina (NWA) are ecologicallyimportant since they are centers of high species diversity, supply food resource forfrugivores during the dry season, and provide shelter and nesting sites. Our objectivewas to assess the conservation status of five palm patches in NWA: Reserve,Embarcación, Palma Sola, Vinalito, and Talar, and prioritize them according to theirconservation status. We compared palm patches characteristics (i.e., adult palm density,population size structure, seedling density, and presence of potential dispersers) todetermine patches with greatest conservation needs. We randomly established 57 plotsof 0.05 ha to survey adult palms and 59 plots of 0.01 ha to survey seedlings. Wecollected feces and identified species that consume palm seeds. We analyzed the datathrough Generalized Linear Mixed Models and Kolmogorov maximum likelihood testto determine if population size structures fitted a bell-shape distribution or a reversed Jshapeddistribution. Our results show that three palm patches do not have an adequateconservation status. Talar and Embarcación patches have a better conservation statusbased on their population structure (reversed J-shaped) and palm density (> 200individuals/ha). Therefore these two palm patches should be prioritized in conservationstrategies and given adequate protection. Reserve and Palma Sola patches have thehighest number of species that consume seeds, but palm density and structure are notadequate to ensure C. alba viability. Vinalito is the palm patch in worst conservationstatus because of its low palm density, bell-shaped population structure, lack ofseedlings and no species that consume palm seeds. Given the high rate of foresttransformation in the Dry Chaco it is necessary to prioritize the protection of palmpatches to ensure the conservation of many species that depend on this habitat type