Browsing by Autor "Pablo Duchen"

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    New distribution records of Gomphrena fuscipellita T. Ortuño & T. Borsch (Amaranthaceae): a rare endemic from Bolivia
    (Pensoft Publishers, 2025) Teresa Ortuño; Elmer Cuba; Daniel B. Montesinos‐Tubée; Svitlana Loza; Pablo Duchen
    We report on Gomphrena fuscipellita T. Ortuño & T. Borsch, a species endemic to Bolivia’s dry valleys. This species was initially described from a type specimen collected in 2005 in Cochabamba (Mizque Province) and an additional sample from Potosí (Charcas Province). However, after two decades, the species has been documented further across southern Bolivia. This study provides an updated geographical distribution, micro‑morphological trichome descriptions, and ecological insights that refine habitat characterization and advance the understanding of its ecological and geographical features.
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    Use of pollen assemblages as forensic evidence in non-seasonal high-altitude soils
    (Elsevier BV, 2023) Vanesa Serrudo Gonzáles; Teresa Ortuño Limarino; Pablo Duchen
    Forensic palynology is a tool in criminalistics that uses spores and pollen grains to link a certain geographical location with a crime scene. The comparison of the pollen assemblage of a crime-scene soil and that of footwear of suspects and victims proved to be very useful as judicial evidence in multiple environments with marked seasonality. However, its usefulness in non-seasonal high-altitude soils has not been experimentally evaluated to the same extent. For this reason, the present study addressed this information gap by undertaking a palynological study in areas with high crime rates in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. To do this, we carried out multiple experimental samplings in three locations with different types of soil and different degrees of urbanization. Specifically, we compared whether the vegetation present at the time of taking the reference samples, was reflected in the pollen rain. Results showed that the vast majority of the species present in the vegetation were found in the pollen rain, with the exception of some plant species with entomophilous pollination syndrome. We also show that the transfer between assemblages from pollen rain to footwear happened effectively, which helped identify their geographical origin, and unveiled a great number of useful indicator species.