Abstract

CUASSOLO, Florencia  and  DIAZ VILLANUEVA, Verónica. Exotic species in wetlands: Analysis of plant communities in natural and urban meadows in Bariloche city. Ecol. austral [online]. 2019, vol.29, n.3, pp.405-415. ISSN 1667-782X.

Wetland vegetation plays a crucial role in Andean ecosystems due to their biodiversity, to the numerous ecosystemic services they provide and to the climate change mitigation. However, basic knowledge on species richness and diversity in wetland, and in particular in urban meadows, is scarce. The objective of this work was to characterize and quantify floristic composition of four meadows with increasing distance to the city and different land uses (e.g., grazing, recreational, touristic, industrial, etc.) in San Carlos de Bariloche City. We identified 81 species, 50% of which were exotic. Also, our results showed a negative relation between the distance to the city center and the percentage of exotic species. We pointed to the presence of native species exclusive of each meadow, and alerted to the possible invasion of the exotic species Potentilla anserina, found in the four meadows, which highlighs the necessity of protection of these vulnerable environments.

Keywords : Invasive species; Floristic composition; Urbanization; Anthropic impacts; Land uses.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )