Proposals for a Sangay National Park in Ecuador

Armstrong, Grady; Macey, Anne

doi:10.1016/0006-3207(79)90007-7

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…, 2006a). The following description is based on our field observations in the area near Atillo and existing literature about this park (Armstrong & Macey, 1979; Mena et al. , 1997; Downer, 2001; UNEP‐WCMC, 2003).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A topography‐based model of forest cover at the alpine tree line in the tropical Andes

Bader¹,

Ruijten

2007

Journal of Biogeography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim To present a method that assesses the influence of environmental variables, including climate, substrate, topography, and anthropogenic disturbances, on the distribution of Andean forest at the tree line, and to compare this forest distribution between areas. Location Sangay National Park, on the eastern slopes of the Andes in central Ecuador. Methods A logistic regression model was built using topographical variables and environmental indices, derived from a digital elevation model, to explain forest cover, derived from a Landsat ETM image, in a zone around the average tree line altitude. Results The model shows that after altitude, which can explain about 80% of forest cover, wetness has the next strongest effect (areas accumulating water, but also cold air, were devoid of forest, resulting in inverted tree lines), followed by eastness (western slopes had forest to higher altitudes). Application of the model in two nearby areas showed that the real tree line was lower than the predicted tree line in both areas, probably owing mainly to macroclimatic differences in one area, and partly also to human land use in the other. The locations with the largest deviations could be the focus of further research concerning human impacts on tree line vegetation. Main conclusions The tree line is located at lower altitudes on east‐facing slopes, which may be because high levels of radiation are received by east‐facing slopes in the clear mornings, resulting in the photoinhibition of tree seedlings in the páramo. In spite of the limitations of the quality and resolution of the remote sensing data, the presented method provides indications for important ecological factors at the tree line. The method also allows the detection of differences in tree line position between areas, which may reflect climatic differences or the location of anthropogenic disturbances.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A topography‐based model of forest cover at the alpine tree line in the tropical Andes

Bader¹,

Ruijten

2007

Journal of Biogeography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Sangay NP (1°50′S, 78°20′W, 5,177 km 2 ) is a much larger national park than Cajas NP, including montane rainforests, cloud forests, páramo and glaciers. About half of the national park area consists of páramo grasslands (Armstrong & Macey, ). It is managed by Ecuador's Ministry of Environment, although its protection is limited because of the limited availability of personnel and lack of clear park boundary markings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Link between cattle and the trophic status of tropical high mountain lakes in páramo grasslands in Ecuador

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The high‐altitude páramo grasslands of the Andes Mountains are rich in lakes that represent a source of high‐quality water for the region. Páramo grasslands are mainly used for cattle grazing. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of cattle on the trophic status of páramo lakes. In a survey of 30 lakes in Cajas National Park (NP), a semi‐quantitative estimate for cattle abundance in the vicinity of the lakes was the best predictor of the chlorophyll‐a concentrations in the lakes. Cattle abundance was also significantly related to phytoplankton community composition, being associated with a shift from chlorophytes to diatoms and dinoflagellates. Lake Culibrillas, a lake situated in the Sangay National Park (Sangay NP), a region with much more intensive cattle farming than Cajas NP exhibited a chlorophyll‐a concentration greater than twice as much as the largest concentration measured in the Cajas NP lakes, being characterized by a dinoflagellate bloom. Although chlorophyll‐a concentrations increased with cattle abundance, the concentrations in all the study lakes remained low (0.02–1.8 μg/L), indicating that extensive cattle farming does not cause severe eutrophication. The results of this study nevertheless indicate that intensification of livestock farming in páramo grasslands might result in a deterioration of water quality in the páramo lakes.

show abstract

“…Unless burning is so frequent as to cause habitat degradation, the impacts of such fires are usually temporary (Swanepoel, 1980;Kern, 1981;Rowe-Rowe and Lou*, 1982;Happold and Happold, 1989). Such perturbations are a common feature of high elevation habitats in the northern Andes (Armstrong and Macey, 1979;Lejtnant and Molau, 1982;Landazuri and Jijan, 1988;Lopez-Arevalo et al, 1993;Homewood, 1996), where humans have practiced fire-management of the region's grasslands for millennia (see Chapman, 1926;Knapp, 1991;Balslev and Luteyn, 1992;Homewood, 1996) Post-fire vegetation regeneration patterns reported by Ramsay and Oxley (1996) indicate that if the practices are operated at sustainable levels the effects on the Plateau's small mammal fauna may continue to be minimal at the meta-population level.…”

Section: Missing Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small mammals of the Cajas Plateau, southern Ecuador: Ecology and natural history

Barnett

1999

FLMNH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We captured 483 small mammals (19 species: 1 insectivore, 2 marsupials, 16 rodents) from sites between 2700 and 4000 m on the Cajas Plateau, Azuay Province, Ecuador. Fifteen species were taken in montane forest and 10 on the páramo. Five species occurred in both habitats. One species was new to science, three were recorded for only the second time and three records were major range extensions, including one species new to Ecuador. Comparisons with other Andean sites show the species diversity of small mammals on the Cajas Plateau to be among the highest recorded in the Andes. Reasons for this are discussed. Data are presented on habitat preferences, reproduction, diet and pelage variation for each species. Litter sizes at the small end of a species' range were consistently observed. Adversity selection (sensu Southwood, 1977) at high altitude is suggested as an explanation. The natural history of several species is reported for the first time since their original discovery.

show abstract

Proposals for a Sangay National Park in Ecuador

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

A topography‐based model of forest cover at the alpine tree line in the tropical Andes

A topography‐based model of forest cover at the alpine tree line in the tropical Andes

Link between cattle and the trophic status of tropical high mountain lakes in páramo grasslands in Ecuador

Small mammals of the Cajas Plateau, southern Ecuador: Ecology and natural history

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About