The Central Andes of Peru: a key area for the conservation of Polylepis forest biodiversity

Conservation status assessment of the highest forests in the world:Polylepis flavipilaforests as a case study

“…We built a data base of P. flavipila locations throughout its distribution range, based on information from the San Marcos herbarium, USM (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru), the Augusto Weberbauer herbarium, MOL (Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Peru), the Tropicos online herbarium [39], the geographical distribution data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility [40], and scientific publications and books with records of the presence of the species [20,[32][33][34][35][36]41]. For the western Peruvian Cordillera, the database was complemented with observations of satellite images taking into account elevation (>4000 m a.s.l.…”

“…We selected four populations of P. flavipila for which there were flora, fauna and population structure evaluations available (see [33][34][35][36][37]). Two forests (Shaitura-Chutco and Shajsee-Shajsee) are located in Lima department, within the Nor-Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve, and the other two (San Luis and Ccarhuancho) are in Huancavelica department, outside a Protected Natural area (Figures 1 and 2).…”

“…and is characterized by its growth in arid and cold habitats [33]. These forests harbor a great diversity of species in different taxonomic groups [34,35]. Currently, this species is partially protected within the Nor-Yauyos Cochas Landscape Reserve (national protected area), although these particular populations are affected by hemiparasite infestations and human-induced modification of spatial distribution and diametrical structure [36,37].…”

“…Until 2006, P. flavipila was considered a subspecies of P. incana [32]; therefore, there are few herbarium records with accurate identification, and based on this, the species was categorized as Vulnerable (VU) in the Peruvian Endemic Species Red Book [20] and it is not on the Global Threatened Species Red List [5,8]. There is still confusion about the taxonomic identification of P. flavipila due to its similarity to other species [4]; in addition, few studies have been carried out in Central Peru, largely because the presence of these forests is unknown as evidenced in the Pan Andean map [33][34][35][36]38].…”

High lichen species richness in Polylepis australis forest: new records from South America and Argentina

“…These Polylepis forests exhibit huge environmental differences with a latitudinal distribution of 4500 km from Venezuela to Central Argentina, elevation ranges from 900 to 5000 m above sea level and includes the world record for the highest elevation displaying tree growth, and a large range of precipitations from 100 to 3000 mm (Harden et al 2013;Cuyckens et al 2016;Renison et al 2018). As a result of their isolation and a relatively stable climate throughout the Pleistocene, many Polylepis forests are inhabited by species of birds, rodents, plants and fungi with high levels of endemisms (Tarifa & Yensen 2001;Calvelo & Liberatore 2002;Fjeldsa 2002;Bellis et al 2009;Robledo & Renison 2010;Sylvester et al 2017;Ames-Martínez et al 2019;Quispe-Melgar et al 2020). The ecology and biodiversity of the heterogeneous forest types classified as 'Polylepis forests' are still poorly represented in the scientific literature with a recent review reporting 139 published studies, of which only 25 studies centered on Polylepis forest biodiversity (Renison et al 2018).…”