diversity Article Floristic Groups, and Changes in Diversity and Structure of Trees, in Tropical Montane Forests in the Southern Andes of Ecuador Oswaldo Jadán 1,2,*, David A. Donoso 3,4 , Hugo Cedillo 1, Fernando Bermúdez 1 and Omar Cabrera 5 1 Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Universidad de Cuenca, 12 de Octubre y Diego de Tapia, Cuenca 010114, Ecuador;
[email protected] (H.C.);
[email protected] (F.B.) 2 Departamento de Biología, Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Calle Tulipán s/n, Móstoles, ES-28933 Madrid, Spain 3 Departamento de Biología, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Ladrón de Guevara, Quito E11253, Ecuador;
[email protected] 4 Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Quito EC170103, Ecuador 5 Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto s/n, Loja 1101608, Ecuador;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Composition, diversity, and structure of trees in tropical montane forests are responsive to ecological gradients and local succession. Those parameters are a result of ecological interactions between vegetation, environment, and location. This study identified floristic groups on mainly secondary forests and evaluated how the composition, diversity, and structure of trees correlate with climate, soil, and age since abandonment. We included in our models a measurement of spatial Citation: Jadán, O.; Donoso, D.A.; correlation, to explore the role of dispersion. For this purpose, we measured diameter and height of Cedillo, H.; Bermúdez, F.; Cabrera, O. all trees with DBH ≥ 10 cm, in twenty-eight 500 m2 plots, in an elevation range between 2900 and Floristic Groups, and Changes in 3500 m.