Estructura poblacional de Psidium claraense (Myrtaceae): repercusiones en la evaluación de su estado de conservación

Abstract

Plant communities that grow on quarzitic sands substrata constitute very important centers of diversity and endemism for the flora of Cuba. In the locality of Casilda, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, it is presented a coastal fringe with these type of soil. In the area, Psidium claraense constitutes a priority of the conservationist work, for its duality of strict endemic and threatened. In the present study the population’s structure was characterized and compared with types of vegetations where grows. The field measurements and observations were carried out in 62 plots of 25 m2 , 35 in the seminaturalscrubwood and 27 in the seminatural savanna. The population is developed in two groups of individuals to the west of the town of Casilda, its structure was found in disequilibrium due to the scarce natural regeneration, probably caused by the affectations that produce the human activities in its habitat. This patron of age structure was presented in a similar way in both vegetation types as well as the aggregated spatial arrangement. The low quantity and density of individuals of P. claraense in the savanna respect to the shrub is probably determinate by the intensity of the human perturbations in one or the other area.The results of the investigation sustain the maintenance of the species in the category of Critically Endangered.