Abstract

GIRALDO BELTRAN, Paola  and  LINK, Andrés. VARIATIONS IN THE AVAILABILITY OF FLESHY FRUITS IN A FOREST OF THE COLOMBIAN MAGDALENA MEDIO. Bol. Cient. Mus. Hist. Nat. Univ. Caldas [online]. 2010, vol.14, n.2, pp.39-56. ISSN 0123-3068.

Between January, 2006 and July, 2008, we studied the temporal variation in the number of plants with ripe fleshy fruit in a remnant tropical humid forest (Bh-T) in the mountainous region Serranía de las Quinchas, in the Colombian Magdalena Medio. We traveled across the forest during 122 weeks crossing a 8,294 m. length transect. We registered the presence of fruit on this transect, we identified the parental plants, their perpendicular distance from the center of the transect and their direction; at the same time we recorded the daily rainfall. We calculated the number of fruiting plants in terms of density every other week and we carried out a regression between density and rainfall. In this study we registered 773 individuals belonging to 145 species and 37 families which correspond to 85% and 89% representativeness. The months with higher quantities of fruiting plants were March, April and December while January, June and October presented lower quantities; this variation was determined in a 6% because of the rainfall periods. This study allowed us to highlight 15 key species for the sustainability of the frugivorous community in the area, since such species show productivity peaks distributed in time and together produce fruits all year long. These results can be used to design Bh-T conservation and restoration plans.

Keywords : tropical humid forest; climate diagram; frugivory; rainfall; ripe fleshy fruits.

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