Characterization of Polylepis tarapacana Life Forms in the Highest-Elevation Altiplano in South America: Influence of the Topography, Climate and Human Uses

LÓPEZ VICTORIA LIEN; BOTAN LUCIA; MARTÍNEZ PASTUR GUILLERMO ; LENCINAS MARÍA VANESSA; CUYCKENS, GRIET AN ERICA; CELLINI JUAN MANUEL

Plants

MDPI

Lugar: Basel; Año: 2023 vol. 12

2223-7747

 In the upper vegetation limit of the Andes, trees change to shrub forms or other life forms,such as low scrubs. The diversity of life forms decreases with elevation; tree life forms generallydecrease, and communities of shrubs and herbs increase in the Andean highlands. Most of treelinepopulations in the northwestern Argentina Altiplano are monospecific stands of Polylepis tarapacana,a cold-tolerant evergreen species that is able to withstand harsh climatic conditions under differentlife forms. There are no studies for P. tarapacana that analyze life forms across environmental andhuman impact gradients relating them with environmental factors. This study aims to determinethe influence of topographic, climatic, geographic and proxies to human uses on the occurrenceof life forms in P. tarapacana trees. We worked with 70 plots, and a new proposal of tree life formclassification was presented for P. tarapacana (arborescent, dwarf trees, shrubs and brousse tigrée).We describe the forest biometry of each life form and evaluate the frequency of these life forms inrelation to the environmental factors and human uses. The results show a consistency in the changesin the different life forms across the studied environmental gradients, where the main changes wererelated to elevation, slope and temperature.