INVESTIGADORES
BISIGATO alejandro Jorge
artículos
Título:
Regional-scale vegetation heterogeneity in northeastern Patagonia: Environmental and spatial components
Autor/es:
BISIGATO, A. J.; HARDTKE, L.; DEL VALLE, H.; BOUZA, P.J.; PALACIO, R.G.
Revista:
COMMUNITY ECOLOGY
Editorial:
AKADEMIAI KIADO RT
Referencias:
Lugar: Budapest; Año: 2016 vol. 17 p. 8 - 16
ISSN:
1585-8553
Resumen:
Our aim was to describe vegetation heterogeneityat a regional scale in northeastern Patagonia and to identify the environmentalvariables associated to it. The study area encompasses 13 144 km2and is characterized by a mixture of species typical of Patagonian steppes andMonte Desert. We performed 48 vegetation relevés, which were randomly assignedto a training set and to a validation set (32 and 16 relevés, respectively).Training set was subjected to cluster analysis, which allowed theidentification of two plant communities one related to Patagonian steppes and anotherto the Monte desert. We derived 3 attributes of the seasonal curve of the NDVIas indicators of ecosystem function: the seasonal amplitude (SA), the date ofthe maximum (DOM), and the large seasonal integral (LSI). We explored therelationship between NDVI attributes and communities by classification treeanalysis. LSI was the strongest predictor among NDVI attributes, separatingboth communities without misclassification errors. Patagonian steppes occupyareas with higher LSI. The partial RDA analysis explained 38.1% of total datavariation, of which 16.5% was ascribed to environment, 7.9% to space, and 13.7%to spatial component of environment. Patagonian steppes are closer to thecoast, in areas exhibiting higher annual precipitation and lower annualtemperature range than Monte deserts. Our results indicate the occurrence oftwo plant communities in the study area and highlight the significance ofclimatic variables to explain their spatial distribution. As most scenarios offuture climate predict greater annual thermal amplitude in the study area, thelimit between both communities could be displaced eastward.