Abstract

FERNANDEZ, Romina D. et al. Preliminary analysis of native and non-native species of terrestrial National Parks of Argentina with emphasis on vascular plants. Bol. Soc. Argent. Bot. [online]. 2023, vol.58, n.1, pp.61-70. ISSN 1851-2372.  http://dx.doi.org/10.31055/1851.2372.v58.n1.38523.

Background and aims: Biodiversity information of protected areas is essential to develop management and conservation strategies. Here we 1) evalúate the number of records of plant and vertebrate species of National Parks (NP) from Argentina based on the species richness of the province where each NP is located, 2) analyze possible explanatory variables of the number of records in each NP, and 3) describe the vegetation registered in three iconic NPs of the country.

M&M: The records of vascular plants and vertebrates, the characteristics of each NP and the species richness of the province where each NP is located were obtained from open access databases. For Calilegua, Iguazú and Nahuel Huapi NPs we describe the number of plants according to family, origin, endemism, life form, IUCN categorization and invasiveness of non-native species.

Results: All NPs showed great variability in their records. There were few records of non-native species. Older NPs had more non-native plants records. The list of plants of Nahuel Huapi NP showed more records than Calilegua and Iguazú. The number of plants categorized by IUCN was very low. Almost all recorded non-native plants were invasive elsewhere in the world.

Conclusions: We emphasize the importance of increasing the survey of species in all NP, particularly vascular plants and in recently created NPs. Special attention must be given to non-native species in order to avoid socio-ecological problems associated with biological invasions.

Keywords : Biodiversity; conservation; exotic species; invasiveness; protected areas.

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