University of Amsterdam, Páramo Vegetation Research, Paramo "El Almorzadero", Colombia

Occurrence
This dataset has never been published
Publication date:
22 April 2015

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Description

The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) from Amsterdam University (UvA) has been working on the Paramos of Colombia since 1970, collecting information on different aspects of plant ecology. The data source is the field data from professor Antoine Cleef (collected in one field campaign in 1978) as part of his PhD thesis, finished in 1981. The study provides information on the occurrence and location of 314 plant species from the Paramo in this area. For the purpose of the GBIF data-publishing, vegetation releve data were converted into species occurrence data.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 314 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Cleef, A. 1981. The vegetation of the Páramos of the Colombian Cordillera Oriental. PhD Thesis. Utrecht University.

GBIF Registration

This resource has not been registered with GBIF

Keywords

Colombia Andean Paramos Eastern cordillera "El Almorzadero" paramo complex Páramo vegetation Altitude Réleve method Braun-Blanquet method Conservation; Occurrence; Observation

Contacts

Antoine Cleef
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
  • Proffesor
University of Amsterdam
  • Science Park 904
1098HX Amsterdam
Noord-Holland
NL
S. Paola Reyes
  • Metadata Provider
  • Research Assistent
NLBIF, IBED, University of Amsterdam
  • Science Park 904
1098HX Amsterdam
Noord-Holland
NL

Geographic Coverage

The Almorzadero paramo complex is located in the provinces of Santander and Norte de Santander in the Eastern cordillera of Colombia. The Almorzadero complex includes the municipalities of Chitagá and Silos in Norte de Santander, and Cerrito, Guaca and Tona, in Santander. The Paramos localities included in this complex are Almorzadero, Mogotoroco, Anagá, Juradó, Las Coloradas, Mantilla, Tona, Berlín y Chitagá. The altitudinal range of the Almorzadero paramo complex varies from 3100m a.s.l. up to 4530 m.a.s.l. and the dataset covers a range between 3425 m.a.s.l. until 4300 m.a.s.l.

Bounding Coordinates South West [7.01, -72.74], North East [7.3, -72.51]

Taxonomic Coverage

All plants identified to species level. Vegetation including phanerogams, bryophytes and lichens.

Kingdom Plant (Phanerogams), Plant (Bryophytes), Fungy (Lichens)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1978-11-19 / 1978-11-21

Project Data

No Description available

Title Field data from Antoine Cleef as part of his PhD study.
Funding Institute of Systematic Botany at Utrecht University. Institute of Systematic Botany at Utrecht University. Hugo de Vries Laboratoty at Institude for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics - IBED The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research-NWO, with the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research-WOTRO
Study Area Description The Almorzadero paramo complex is located in the provinces of Santander and Norte de Santander in the Eastern cordillera of Colombia. It is the highest massif north of the National Natural Park "El Cocuy". This complex is very important for the provinces of Santander and Norte de Santander because it is one of the main water sources for the inhabitants of the region. In the area coal mining is one of the main impacts as well as cattle grazing. At the time of the study, the botanical exploration of the paramos was far from complete and little was known about the modern vegetation of the paramos. The biogeography of the area was very interesting because it was the northest massif of the eastern cordillera, a superparamo located on calcareous rock but quiet different to "El Cocuy" that is located close to "El Almorzadero". Also a complete inventory of the paramo flora from a phytosociological perspective was needed. This was the first study carried out in "El Almorzadero", particularly in the southern calcareous part icluding the summit (4375m a.s.l., which mainly consists of rocks belonging to the Low Cretaceus Rosa Blanca formation.
Design Description The method used for paramo vegetation sampling was based on the Braun-Blanquet o Zürich- Montpellier schools which take the relevé as the main sampling unit. The Braun-Blanquet method is based on dominant species that are grouped in associations and then at a higher level in alliances. This is the standard methodology used in Europe, SouthAfrica, United States, Japan and in the world in general. One of the final goals of the methodology mainly in Europe is to get to nature conservation, which is also the goal in the Colombian paramos.

The personnel involved in the project:

Antoine Cleef
  • Author

Sampling Methods

The vegetation sampling was done by the relevé method following the Braun-Blanquet principles. The relevé is a list of the plants in a delimited plot of vegetation, with information on species cover and on substrate and other abiotic features in the plot. The vegetation releve data were converted into species occurrence data.

Study Extent The study was done in The "El Almorzadero" páramo complex. The data was collected in November 1978.
Quality Control The original data was taken in field books, consisting either of a valid species name or a code of the specimen with collection of it for its later taxonomical identification (when identification on the field was not possible). In total 26 releves were produced consisting of a species list with its cover, date, location, altitude, slope, etc. The data of "El Almorzadero" remained in paper until 2011, when the NLBIF financed digitizing the data. The data was digitized using the software TurboVeg, which is a software design for this type of vegetation information and then exported from community data into species occurrence data. The data stored in TurboVeg was checked to identify errors in the information or gaps needed to be filled. The two main fields identified to be checked/completed were the georeference data and the validation of the taxonomy of each species. Also the gaps in terms of the precision of the georeference data were filled.

Method step description:

  1. Releve data was stored in the software TurboVeg and then exported into species occurrence data. The species list used in TurboVeg was checked by an expert to confirm the valid taxonomy (taking into account taxonomy changes, synonyms, etc). (Guido van Reenen, paramo species list). This list was cross-checked with The Plant List (http://www.theplantlist.org/), for the period July 2011 until February 2013 (during this time frame the names where the accepted). All the "El Almorzadero" data was lacking a georeference and specific habitat indication. In 2013 to improve de dataset quality, this data was completed as detail and precise as possible, but due to time restriction only a general georeference was given to the data and a general indication for the habitat type was given, this in colaboration with A. Cleef. The georeference data assigned to the data set was based in google maps, where a point in the center of the Paramo complex was chosen and the precision was calculated as the longest distance from this point to the paramo complex border. The original data was checked (data in paper) trying to find extra information on the locality but not founded. Then based on the altitude range for the dataset, a center point was chosen and the precsion e=was calculated with the borders of the Paramo complex defined by Morales et al., 2007 in the "Atlas de Paramos de Colombia". Also to complete the geographic coverage and the study extend recent literature was used to get info about the paramo complex. The most recent document available for Colombia is the "Atlas de Paramos de Colombia" published in 2007 and available online at http://www.humboldt.org.co/chmcolombia/servicios/jsp/paramos/enColombia.jsp

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Cleef. A.M. 1981. The vegetation of the paramos of the Colombian Cordillera Oriental. PhD Thesis. State University of Utrecht. 320pp. Also published as Dissertationes Botanicae, Baud 61, J. Cramer, Vadyz and "The Cuaternary of Colombia", Vol.9.
  2. Morales M., Otero J., Van der Hammen T., Torres A., Cadena C., Pedraza C., Rodríguez N., Franco C., Betancourth J.C., Olaya E., Posada E. y Cárdenas L. 2007. Atlas de páramos de Colombia. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Bogotá, D. C. 208 p. ISBN 958-8151-91-5

Additional Metadata

Purpose

Purpose 1: Data in TurboVeg Purpose 2: data converted to species occurrence. Data repatriation to Colombia to be used in actual research.

Alternative Identifiers http://ipt.nlbif.nl/tryout/resource?r=ibed_paramo_almorzadero