Phytosociological study in the prairie vegetation of the Chol-Chol river (Cautin, Chile)
1994
Ramirez G, Carlos | San Martin P, Cristina (Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia (Chile). Inst. de Botanica) | Contreras F, Domingo | San Martin A, Jose
The clay soil of the Chol-Chol river valley (Cautin province, Chile) as an unstable microrelief is formed by depressions, isolated by a reticle of mounds. The depressions keep soil moisture during the dry season, while the mounds stay dry. With the methods of the Zurich-Montpellier phytosociological school the prairie's flora and vegetation of these soil were studied to differentiate floristic and vegetationally the available biotops and to verify the native character of this vegetation. In all studied biotops dominate in number and cover the native species upon the exotic, that confirm the exceptional primitive and original character of these Chol-Chol river prairies in South-Central Chile. The flora formed by 53 species is more abundant in the wet biotops than in the xeric mounds. The more important life forms are perennial hemicryptophytes and annual therophytes, according to the grazing and to mediterranean climate. The principal components ordination analysis suggests that water and temperature are the more important abiotic factors in the microdistribution of the plant species. A prairie association Leontodo-Piptochaetetum growing in these valley in described, with two subassociations: Leontodo-Piptochaetetum Chevreulietosum that colonized the dry mounds and Leontodo-Piptochaetetum Navarrietosum that grows in the more wet depressions
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