Project Update: January 2009

In three municipalities, Madrid, Tabio and Bogotá, I characterized three small fragments of scrubland (Madrid 10.52 ha, Bogotá 5.14 ha and Tabio 0.31 ha) and two large ones (Madrid 144.33 ha and Tabio 52.73 ha). I chose a large fragment in Bogotá but due to security problems I was not allowed to perform the vegetation survey. The fragments by group (small and large) were different in perimeter and shape (Mann-Whitney U 0.0 p = 0.05).

Also I characterized the vegetation in three strata: Grassing (0.00 - 0.30 m), Herbaceous (0.31 - 1.5 m) and Shrub (>1.5 m). The vegetation's height in small fragments was 3 m and in large fragments 3.5 m. I was found no differences in vegetation cover per stratum and the shrub stratum had the higher average coverage in all fragments (69%) The dominant scrubland species was Myrciantho leucoxilae-Miconion squamulosae (Cortés et al., 1999) and the dominant species were shrubs Miconia squamulosa, Myrchiantes leucoxyla, Dodonea viscosae and Xiloma spiculifera.