Analysis of the livestock passive forest restoration in the Tamaulipan Thornscrub in northeast Mexico

Abstract

In Mexico, the terrestrial surface used for cattle breeding, is about 56 % of the national territory. The thornscrub ecosystem has the widest distribution in Mexico and historically had been used for livestock purposes in arid and semiarid regions. To analyze the post-livestock passive restoration in Tamaulipan thornscrub of northeast Mexico there were established four sampling sites of 40 m x 40 m (1600 m2). All trees and shrubs ≥ 3 cm in diameter at 10 cm were measured. We used ecological indicators of abundance, dominance, frequency, importance value index, Margalef index and index of Shannon & Wiener. There were two dominant species (Vachellia farnesiana and Prosopis glandulosa) with 74 % of absolute dominance, while the remaining 26 % is divided among the remaining 10 species. There was an absolute abundance of 3050 individuals, where Vachellia farnesiana represents 60% of the total. According to the diameter distribution, we observed that all individuals of Vachellia farnesiana, 57 % (168 individuals) were in the range of 0 to 10 cm in diameter, which indicates an active regeneration of the ecosystem.