Compositional patterns of ruderal herbs in Santiago, Chile

Abstract

Fragmentation of the natural environment is a consequence of urbanisation. It impacts the biodiversity of native flora that
characterises a region. This study focused on characterising the diversity, composition and distribution of native and alien
ruderal species present in different suburbs of Santiago de Chile. We found that plant assemblages of ruderal species were
characterised by a higher proportion of alien species (69 taxa), whose original distribution corresponds to the Mediterranean
Basin (46 taxa), and a low representation of native species (14 taxa). The results show that the spatial distribution of weeds
within Santiago was not random, because two clusters were found based on patterns of compositional similarity. Further
research should be undertaken to determine the cause of this phenomenon that probably obeys historical and ecological
factors such as the past use of soils or urban landscape ornamentation programs.