South Atlantic tourist resorts: how afforestation influence biodiversity.

FAGGI A.; PEREPELIZIN P.; DADON J.

Erfurt - Alemania

Conferencia; Urban Biodiversity & Design; 2008

Convention on Biological Diversity

In Argentina coastal resorts, are located on dunes, originally covered by herbaceous native vegetation. Primary occupation remained in fishing and stock rising until the area became important for tourism. Up to that date, there was a law obligation to forest the dunes before land was divided into lots for settlement. Since then, exotic afforestations have been increased to stabilize blowing sands, perceived as a threat to urban developments. In order to know the effects afforestations may have on plant and bird diversity, we conducted pair wise vegetation and bird inventories in forested (fixed dunes) and non-forested (semi-fixed) dunes. Afforested dunes show a clear retrieval of psammophytic plants and those indicating humidity. Exotic plants represent 37% of the richness but cover only 13 % of the wooded lots. No single exotic plant was a clear dominant across sampled sites, suggesting that south Atlantic coastal areas are resistant to alien invasion. Birds, grouped in foraging guilds, have been associated to different habitats. Species observed in afforested dunes were opportunists and urban with a greater proportion of “forests” birds. Compared with urban parks, afforested dunes have a greater bird richness and density. Some differences between southern and northern locations are been discussed.