Abstract

RAMIREZ, Giovanny  and  RANGEL-CH., J. Orlando. Open sky mining and plant succession in a tropical pluvial forest in Chocó, Colombia. Rev. acad. colomb. cienc. exact. fis. nat. [online]. 2019, vol.43, n.169, pp.673-688. ISSN 0370-3908.  https://doi.org/10.18257/raccefyn.896.

We characterized the plant communities in three mining sites abandoned 30, 15, and 5 years ago, all of them located in the village of Jigualito, municipality of Condoto, department of Chocó (Colombia). We established five plots of 500 m2 in each of these areas where we recorded and measured the individuals in all the strata defined according to their height. We observed how the richness has increased and the abundance has decreased as the time of recovery augmented and how a more complex structure has appeared to include three strata in the first five years to five clearly defined strata after 30 years of natural forest regeneration. We contrasted this floristic composition and the forest structure and architecture with those of a control forest. After 30 years, the plant community had reached approximately 50 % of its initial conditions as regards the floristic composition, however, the arrangement of the structure and the architecture is completely different from that of the control forest. These results evidenced that open sky mining activities cause a series of alterations and transformations that make the recovery of the initial configuration of humid forests very unlikely.

Keywords : Plant succession; tropical rain forest; open sky mining; richness; ecology.

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