QUALITY OF THE RIPARIAN VEGETATION OF THE MAULLIN RIVER (41 °28'S; 72° 59' W) USING QBR INDEX

Abstract

Maullín River is a site identified by CONAMA as priority for in situ conservation for the importance of his associations of endemic vegetation that harbors and protects a wide diversity of organisms, some of which have conservation problems. Despite this, the vegetation is being harvested and replaced by exotic species. In order to generate a quality assessment of riparian vegetation of this river, we applied the QBR index in 24 stations, which is based on in situ registration of attributes and components of the riparian area. The results indicate that 16.7% of the stations are with extreme degradation and bad quality (QBR < 25), 20.8% with strong alteration and poor quality (QBR = 30-50), 29.2% show starting changes with a quality of intermediate type (QBR = 55-70), 25.0% are slightly disturbed and good quality (QBR = 75-90). Finally, 8.3% of the stations showed a very good quality type, with riparian vegetation in pristine condition (QBR > 90).