ESPECIES DE PLANTAS EXOTICAS Y SU POTENCIAL IMPACTO EN EL AREA PROTEGIDA "ISLA SANTAY"

Abstract

Invasive species are the second major cause of biodiversity loss on the planet. For this reason, the present study aims to identify exotic species present in Santay Island, to know which of them are the most abundant, and infer the impact that they can generate to local biodiversity. In order to obtain this information, it was necessary to separate this research into two phases, first, the analytical phase, in which a floristic inventory was taken, including field data and all necessary information about the flora of the area where it was collected. Then, a second phase, the synthetic phase, I made a tabulation of the inventories collected in the field to estimate the abundance and distribution of invasive alien species. The present study showed that there are exotic species of plants in Santay Island that have the potential to become invasive. This is worrying as they have chosen a place of great ecological importance for the region, the wetland Santay Island, located in the coastal region of Ecuador.