Characterization of Polylepis tarapacana life forms in the highest-elevation Altiplano in South America: influence of the topography, climate and human uses

Abstract

In the upper vegetation limit of the Andes, trees change to shrub forms or other life forms, such as low scrubs. The diversity of life forms decreases with elevation; tree life forms generally decrease, and communities of shrubs and herbs increase in the Andean highlands. Most of treeline populations in the northwestern Argentina Altiplano are monospecific stands of Polylepis tarapacana, a cold-tolerant evergreen species that is able to withstand harsh climatic conditions under different life forms. There are no studies for P. tarapacana that analyze life forms across environmental and human impact gradients relating them with environmental factors. This study aims to determine the influence of topographic, climatic, geographic and proxies to human uses on the occurrence of life forms in P. tarapacana trees. We worked with 70 plots, and a new proposal of tree life form classification was presented for P. tarapacana (arborescent, dwarf trees, shrubs and brousse tigrée). We describe the forest biometry of each life form and evaluate the frequency of these life forms in relation to the environmental factors and human uses. The results show a consistency in the changes in the different life forms across the studied environmental gradients, where the main changes were related to elevation, slope and temperature.