Abstract

MEDRANO MERAZ, María de Jesús; HERNANDEZ, Francisco Javier; CORRAL RIVAS, Sacramento  and  NAJERA LUNA, Juan Abel. Tree diversity at different altitude levels in the El Salto, Durango región. Rev. mex. de cienc. forestales [online]. 2017, vol.8, n.40, pp.57-68. ISSN 2007-1132.

The presence of plant species is a function of altitude; therefore, the purpose of this study was to estimate and compare tree diversity on the altitudinal gradient of the El Salto, Durango region. Twelve forest communities were selected from between 1 500 and 3 000 m, which was divided into five intervals of 300 m each. A total of 268 circular sites of 0.1 ha were randomly distributed proportionally for each interval, where species richness (S), proportional diversity indexes of Shannon-Wiener (H’) and Simpson (λ), of Pielou’s equity (J’) and dominance of Simpson (Eλ) were determined. Comparison of tree diversity between altitudes was made on the Shannon-Wiener index using the Hutcheson t-test. Species richness varied from 14 to 25 taxa, the Shannon-Wiener index from 1.94 to 2.67 and Simpson’s 0.09 to 0.18. Equity and dominance by Pielou and Simpson suggest that species abundance tends to be heterogeneous. The Hutcheson t test showed that there are significant differences in species diversity between altitudinal intervals.

Keywords : Tree diversity; altitudinal gradient; Pielou index; Shannon-Wiener index; Simpson index; species richness.

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