Diversidad y estado actual del arbolado urbano en las áreas verdes municipales de la ciudad de Machala

Abstract

The objective of this research work was to diagnose the current state of urban trees in the municipal green areas of the city of Machala, where the methodology of Alejandro Dowhal was adapted, which proposes the tree inventory model with 3 variables: geographic location, dasometric characteristics and phytosanitary status. In addition, databases such as GBIF and TROPICOS were used to identify native and introduced species and finally, Shannon and Simpson's diversity indexes were applied. The tree inventory was carried out in 7 urban parishes, covering 33 municipal green areas of Machala, resulting in 2061 tree individuals, which are made up of 50 species and 21 families, the most representative species being Bucida buceras, Phoenix roebelenii, Adonidia merrilli and Tabebuia rosea and the most representative families Arecaceae and Fabaceae. It was determined that of the total number of urban trees only 16% are native species and 84% are introduced species, being identified only 7 species as native, which are: Tabebuia rosea, Ficus obtusifolia, Pseudosamanea guachapele, Inga edulis, Cordia lutea, Psidium guajava and Annona muricata. It was also determined that the phytosanitary condition of urban trees is 50.42% in the Acceptable category