Restoration strategies for the páramo of frailejones perturbed by fires in northern Ecuador

Abstract

Rodríguez-Echeverry, J., Leiton, M. 2020. Restoration strategies for the páramo of frailejones effected by fires in northern Ecuador. Ecosistemas 29(3):2018. https://doi.org/10.7818/ECOS.2018

In order to propose strategies for the restoration of the páramo of frailejones perturbed by fires in northern Ecuador, this study evaluated the effectiveness of three techniques that used three native species in three sites with different slope in the terrain. Three sites with different slopes were identified: Upper (>30%), Middle (between 15% and 30%) and Low (<15%). In each site, six restoration trials were established. In these trials, the following three techniques were implemented: introduction of native species, with the planting of Polylepis incana in two different densities; plant relocation and natural regeneration, each technique with the species Hypericum laricifolium and Hypericum lancioides. Plants were monitored for 24 months. The effectiveness of the techniques was evaluated in terms of the success in survival, growth and phytosanitary status of the plants, using the Kaplan-Meier estimator, analysis of variance with the Tukey mean comparison test (p<0.05), and Chi square test, respectively. Restoration strategies were proposed based on the effectiveness of the following techniques in each site: Introduction of native species of P. incana in lower density and natural regeneration of H. lancioides in the Upper slope sites; introduction of native species of P. incana in both densities and natural regeneration of H. laricifolium in the Middle slope sites; introduction of native species of P. incana in higher density and plant relocation of H. laricifolium and H. lancioides in the Low slope sites. The proposed strategies contribute to the design and planning of the restoration of this important high Andean ecosystem.