Analysis of Changes in Diversity of Understory Shrub Communities from Three Localities Inside Yanachaga Chemillen National Park (Pasco-Peru)

A total of 9 transects were evaluated in three ecosystems (3 tests in each ecosystem) inside Yanachaga Chemillen National Park (Pasco - Peru): a tropical cloud rain forest, a tropical humid forest and a tropical pre - Montane Very Humid Forest. Transects measured 50m x 2m. Richness, abundance and diversity of individual shrubs <= 5m high were analyzed. Results describe that inside the understory the diversity of shrubs diminishes with altitude, due to which the highest number of species was found in the humid tropical forest. Nevertheless, diversity was always high in the three types of forest, as would be expected for an area under protection. Cluster analysis between transects showed closer similarity among shrub communities from the tropical cloud rain forests and those of the pre - montane very humid forest. We state that this methodology is very interesting when you want to evaluate biodiversity in tropical ecosystems, due to its practical use and quality of the data.