Plant community dynamics of lomas fog oasis of Central Peru after the extreme precipitation caused by the 1997-98 El Nino event.

ABSTRACT: Despite El Niño events being one of the main forces shaping the coastal desert vegetation in South America, the impacts of the high precipitation typical of this rare but recurrent climatic event remain understudied. Here we monitored the plant community of a coastal lomas, a seasonal desert ecosystem, during 1998 and 2001 to analyse its changes during the 1997-98 El Niño and the following La Niña events. We measured species abundance and vegetation cover in 31 plots, and recorded climate variables in Lomas de Lachay, Peru. We found a significant positive correlation between precipitation and vegetation cover, density, alpha diversity (species diversity at the plot level), total richness and abundance of several key species but no correlation with gamma diversity (species diversity at the

SUBMITTER: Tovar C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5749840 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature