| Richter, M; Beck, E; Rollenbeck, R; Bendix, J: The Study Area. In: Bendix J., Beck E., Bräuning A., Makeschin F., Mosandl R., Scheu S. and Wilcke W. (eds): Ecosystem Services, Biodiversity and Environmental Change in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of South Ecuador., Ecological Studies, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Vol. 221 (2013), doi:10.1007/978-3-642-38137-9_1 | |
| Abstract: The Rio San Francisco Valley—part of the biodiversity hotspot in the tropical Andes of southern Ecuador—is deeply incised in the eastern mountain range and thus is typical of many other valleys between Colombia and Bolivia. Its particular species richness is associated with its position in the northern part of the “Andean Depression” which provides migration corridors between the dry Pacific coast and the humid Amazon basin as well as isolated habitats resulting from the breakup of the central Cordillera, favouring speciation. The chapter reports on specific mesoscale atmospheric phenomena that contribute to the extreme humidity of the area, on mass movement and denudation processes and touches upon the accelerated deforestation in southern Ecuador. Specific conditions such as the direct opposition of the natural forest on the north-facing slopes of the valley with anthropogenic replacement systems on the south-facing slopes render the area most useful as a focal research site for an interdisciplinary study of biodiversity and of the functioning and services of the corresponding ecosystems which have been investigated in field surveys, ecological experiments and simulations using numerical models. |
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