Identity of the montane grasslands in the southern Central Andes

CLAUDIA MARTIN; LONE AAGESEN

CABA

Congreso; XXXV Willi Hennig Society Meeting; 2016

MACN

Understanding the distribution patterns of taxa in a given region, such as defining areas of endemism, allow testing classic - or not so classic - biogeographic schemes. In the Southern Cone, the montane grasslands of Cabrera are distributed discontinuously from 18°S to about 30°S, on the eastern slopes of the Central Andes, between 1500 to 3500 m a.s.l. According to the classic biogeographical scheme of Cabrera, these grasslands are the top floor of the Tucumano-Bolivian Yungas vegetation. However, in recent years several authors have suggested a closer relationship with the Humid Puna of Bolivia, or thehigh Andean Paramo of the Northern Andes. Nevertheless, to date no contributions have explicitly analyzed this vegetation. Here, we analyze the distribution patterns of 700 vascular plants (32 orders of angiosperms, gymnosperms, ferns, and lycophytes) that were collected in montane grasslands in a study area of about 53,000 km2. We aim to assess whether these grasslands have their own identity, whether they form one or more distribution patterns, or areas of endemism, and whether these areas in turn are part of broader distribution pattern - such as the Tucumano-Bolivian Yungas, the High Andes, or otherbiogeographic units. For analysis; we used cells of different sizes (0.5° - 0.2°) and shapes (square and rectangular) using the NDM / VNDM program that applies an optimality criterion for the identification of areas of endemism.