Alteraciones del fuego sobre la biodiversidad de bosques templados. El caso del bosque costero pluvial de Chile

Abstract

The effect forestry wildfires in the temperate rain forest of southern Chile (39º to 42º S) is study. After outlining the major climatic trends within the region we show that, contrary to expectation based on the present geographic isolation of the region, austral rainforest exhibit a very rich floristic assemblage. The rate of destruction of native forest is one of the major conservation problems in Chile. The main causes of this process are the conversion of native forest to pine plantations, the human-set forest fires and conversion to agriculture land. The goal this projet was to study fire effects on temperate and subpolar evergreen ombrophillous forest and the principal study was carrried out in the coastal mountains. In the control area a phytogeographical study was carried out land survey, with the use plots, statistics data the fires, lines and census for measuring vegetation density cover and volume. Also the use of remote sensing. The communities with differents strategies of resistance to fire are detected: for exemple Fitzroya cupressoides is very affected.