Identification of the ecological composition of urban trees in the green areas of Quinindé, Esmeraldas, Ecuador

Abstract

Urban areas have experienced rapid growth, these spaces are important, offering climate regulation and improving air quality, for this reason the study aims to identify the ecological composition of the urban trees in the green areas of Quinindé, Esmeraldas, Ecuador. The study was carried out through an inventory of dendrometric variables taking the (DAP) at 1.30 m from the urban trees in representative places such as: parks, avenues, streets, flowerbeds and green spaces, describing the composition at a floristic and structural level. In the results, 24 forest species were identified, of which 12 are fruit trees, six arboreal and six palms, botanically distributed in 14 families. Of which 6 native species and 18 introduced, Arecaceae being the most representative family. A greater presence in class IV was diagnosed in the horizontal structure and in the vertical structure in class II. In the Ecological Importance Value Index, Adonidia merrillii becc was the most representative with 37.11% from the ecological point of view, while the Shannon – Wiener index has a diversity of 3.14, the Simpson index with 0 .82 representing high diversity, the Margalef index obtained a value of 3.42 indicating high richness and the Pielou index is 0.68 determining moderate equity. Finally, it is concluded that the urban tree identification of the Quinindé canton has a good biodiversity of forest families and species.