Evaluación del riesgo de invasión de mamíferos terrestres introducidos en áreas protegidas del Ecuador Continental

Abstract:

Biological invasions have been a continuous threat to biodiversity, especially for Protected Areas (PA). Studies show that exotic invasive species, mainly mammals due to being the most successful in doing so, significantly affect the structure of the ecosystem they are intruding into and cause harm and difficulties to the native fauna. In Ecuador, there's little information on the invasiveness status of the introduced land mammals, therefore, this body of work set itself the task of evaluating the risk of Invasive Land Mammals (ILM) in several continental protected areas in Ecuador. This study encompassed forty-six Protected Areas (PAs), and to properly gauge the presence and volume of the Intrussive Land Mammals, an inventory was made. After that, the potential of invasive risk of each species was established by risk assessment. The results revealed the presence of thirteen different invasive species in twenty-eight areas, with the ecological reservations mangroves Churute and Cotacachi-Cayapas being the ones with the largest variety of these. Eleven species presented a very high threat level, and one a high level. It was concluded that twelve species were categorized as potentially invasive and according to the analysis protocol, their introduction to all the Protected Areas (PA), must be rejected and stopped. The application of this study and its findings are very important for the approach and development of public policies focused on the control of the numerous invasive species for the sake of the local ecosystem.

Año de publicación:

2021

Keywords:

• INVASIONES BIOLÓGICAS
• MAMÍFEROS EXÓTICOS
• ANALISIS DE RIESGO
• RIQUEZA DE ESPECIES
• INVENTARIO

Fuente:

rraae