Caracterización del bosque húmedo tropical de la comunidad de Playa Grande, cantón Eloy Alfaro, provincia Esmeraldas

Abstract

The present work was developed in the tropical humid forest of the community of Playa Grande, San José del Cayapas parish, Eloy Alfaro canton, Esmeraldas province. The main objective was to determine the floristic structure and composition through a forest a methodology was developed based on a forest inventory, which would allow identifying the existing forest species, characterizing the horizontal and vertical structure, and interpreting the silvicultural state of the outstanding desirable natural regeneration. Fourteen plots were systematically made, with an area of ​​1,000 square meters each (50 m x 20 m). The dasometric variables of all individuals with DBH ≥ 10 cm were recorded; additionally, total height data (Ht) were collected from each individual. The identification of the species was determined using a local guide or guide and by acquired knowledge, generating absolute and relative tables of abundance, frequency and dominance to obtain the indices of dominance, richness, diversity and ecological importance value index (IVIE). A total of 777 individuals belonging to 63 species distributed in 31 families were found. The most abundant species are Guazuma ulmifolia Lam, Trichospermun spp and Brosimun utile, each with 55 individuals. The most abundant families are Moraceae, with 8 species; Lauraceae, with 5 species; Meliaceae, with 4 species; Fabaceae, Bombacaceae, Malvaceae, Myristicaceae and Sapotaceae, with 3 species respectively. Regarding the forest structure, the species with the greatest absolute dominance are Brosimun utile, Guazuma ulmifolia Lam, Trichospermun spp, Ocotea spp, Pourouma minor Benoist and Apeiba aspera Aubl. The Shannon diversity, Simpson dominance, Margalef richness, and IVIE indices indicate that the forest has high species diversity, relatively uniform structure, and relatively high species richness.