Realizan acciones previas para implementar futuro jardín botánico UdeC - Campus naturaleza

At the end of August, three Nothofagus tree species will be planted, a milestone that will begin the ex situ conservation line of the Campus Naturaleza Universidad de Concepción project. The ruil, hualo and Santiago oak are endemic species of our country and threatened in their natural habitats, so contributing to their conservation is a relevant action at a local and international level.

First of all, it was necessary to cut down the existing eucalyptus plantation and subject its residues to a shredding process with machines to generate mulch. This allows to reduce both the loss of soil moisture in the summer months and the regeneration of invasive species. Subsequently, a plantation template is delimited on the ground, which represents the pattern where each plant will be established. This template follows a spatial scheme close to nature, which was generated from native reference ecosystems without intervention, investigated in field campaigns for the three species.

These are some of the preliminary actions that are being carried out to implement the first botanical garden of the University of Concepción.

Reference ecosystem

Three Nothofagus tree species, endemic to our country and threatened in their natural habitats by different factors, will be the protagonists of the plantation, a relevant milestone within the framework of the ex situ conservation line (botanical garden) of the Campus Naturaleza project.

The conservation of the endangered ruil (Nothofagus alessandrii), hualo (N. glauca) and Santiago oak (N. macrocarpa), both in a vulnerable state, according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), are part of the objectives.

Various factors such as land use change, overexploitation, urbanization, fires and climate change, among others, have contributed to fragmenting and destroying the habitat of these species and others of the Nothofagus genus, between the Metropolitan and Maule regions. These trees are key to the ecology of forests in the southern hemisphere and are currently showing a worrying tendency towards disappearance.

Dr. Cristian Echeverría Leal, Director of the Campus Naturaleza UdeC project, points out that scientific evidence points “towards a trend that has raised all the alarms. The current climate crisis, combined with factors of human origin, could result in a progressive disappearance of the Nothofagus species endemic to Chile. Faced with this scenario, the international scientific community has put forward some guidelines, in the sense that it is necessary to avoid the extinction of these threatened species, through an integrated conservation approach. This includes ex situ conservation, which refers to the conservation of species outside their natural distribution range,” he explains.

The UdeC academic argues that ex situ conservation is becoming a lifeline that can perpetuate the living genetic material of these species through the implementation of a space commonly known as a botanical garden. “That is the direction of all the work that the University of Concepción has developed, in relation to bringing this problem to light, together with other institutions and making all possible efforts, implementing long-term insurance that will help prevent the disappearance of these emblematic species in the forests of the southern hemisphere of the planet,” he says.

Implementation

The University of Concepción will have six hectares available for the implementation of the first stage of its botanical garden; of these, three are already suitable to receive the first Nothofagus plants, which are currently growing in the nursery of the Forestry Institute (INFOR).

Monitoring in inspiration forest, reference ecosystem

Dr. Cristian Echeverría maintains that the planting of these specimens will mark the beginning of the ex situ conservation line of the Campus Naturaleza project, on surfaces close to the Casa de Estudios in Penquista. “This planting will be an important milestone for the conservation of biodiversity in Chile. To reach this point, a series of previous efforts had to be made, such as the survey of the reference ecosystems of these species, updating the status of their populations and their distribution in the country, identifying seed trees, among other activities.”

In this same sense, he adds that it was necessary to carry out a series of seed collection campaigns in the places where these Nothofagus species grow naturally between the Metropolitan and Maule regions. “Among others, the actions mentioned were possible thanks to the work of a team made up of professionals and specialists also from other institutions. The information collected in the field has also allowed us to build up a body of knowledge, which will undoubtedly be an important input to apply in the ex situ conservation line of the project.”

Campus Naturaleza Universidad de Concepción is an unprecedented initiative in Chile, in which 25 hectares of relict deciduous forest ecosystems in Concepción and aquatic ecosystems will be preserved. In addition, actions for human well-being and comprehensive health, among others, will be implemented in the context of a project whose pillars are found in science and in the benefits provided by the permanent relationship between humans and nature.

In turn, thirty-seven species, distributed in 7 countries in the southern hemisphere, make up the genus Nothofagus. The Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reveals that the ruil, the hualo and the Santiago oak are the three species of Nothofagus threatened in South America and endemic to Chile, that is, they only exist in our country.