The anthropogenic rural landscape of Aisén, Chile: Structure and vegetation dynamic

Abstract

We studied the dynamic of the vegetation degradation in a rural anthropogenic mosaic vegetal landscape of the Aisen
Region, Chile to establish relations of origin in space and time between communities and propose series of degradation.
With plant sociological methodology we make up 50 vegetation samples. The initial table was sorted using differential
species in 7 communities: ñire scrub (Anemone multifida-Nothofagus antarctica), silvipasture with ñire, silvipasture with
chacay, trebol-ballica prairie (Bromus catharticus-Trifolium repens), chepica-cadillo prairie (Acaena ovalifolia-Agrostis
capillaris), cadillo-Aira prairie and cadillo steppe, which were compared in their systematic, biological and origin spectra.
The initial table previously transformed into a data matrix was treated with multivariate statistical analysis of classification
(cluster analysis) and ordination (principal components analysis). Finally using the Ellenberg community similarity
coefficient were compared and distributed in a communities constellation. The flora of the initial plant sociological table
consisted of 78 species with a predominance of annual and perennial herbaceous foreign species that indicated a large
anthropic influence. The following vegetation dynamic of degradation was established: ñire scrub is degraded by grazing
in a ñire silvipasture, which is transformed in a anthropogenic overgrazed trebol-ballica prairie this becomes a cadillo-Aira
prairie, which by default ends in a cadillo steppe without human management possibility. We discussed the results and
applicability of the using methods.