Analysis and synthesis of palaeoecological data revealing patterns of mountain vegetation and plant diversity dynamics and its response to climate, fire, land use changes in biodiversity hotspots

Project duration 2010-2013

The Ecuadorian Andes harbour one of the highest biodiversity hot-spots in the world. Here, many different ecosystems influence one another in a most limited space. Yet only little is known about vegetation history and the development of biodiversity in this region. Multivariate data analyses and syntheses of new and previously gathered paleoecological data sets will be conducted to shed more light on the patterns of mountain vegetation and plant biodiversity dynamics and their response to climate, fire and land use changes. Additionally, to better understand the relationship between pollen rain and vegetation and to enhance the data basis for interpretation of paleosediments, pollen traps are installed and analysed along an altitudinal gradient.
Results of the paleoecological biodiversity-analyses in southern Ecuador will be compared with those of the biodiversity-hotspot in Mata Atlantica in southern Brazil to draw more extensive conclusions about the development of biodiversity-hotspots in the neotropics.
Another goal of the project is to reveal the determining factors in the past, present and future development of the upper forest line in the Podocarpus Nationalpark region. Possible factors are disturbance by fire or land use or a continuing succession. To test these hypotheses, vegetation history of undisturbed areas will be compared to that of previously disturbed areas close to the forest line.
Furthermore, the PODOcarpus National Park 3-D LANDscapemodel (PODOLAND) will be enhanced. This model enables the visualisation of past and present vegetation dynamics in the Podocarpus National Park region by integrating and synthesising local data on climate, vegetation, biodiversity, fire and land use changes on a regional scale.
This project is part D1 of the DFG-Research Unit 816 “Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of a Megadiverse Mountain Ecosystem in South Ecuador” (www.tropicalmountainforest.org).


Project management:
Prof. Dr. Hermann Behling

Scientific co-workers:
Nele Jantz
Andrea Villota
Fernando Rodriguez

Keywords:
Ecuador, Andes, vegetation history, climate dynamics, pollen analysis, biodiversity hot-spots

Start:
01.04.2010

Funding:
DFG