Caracterización ambiental de un bosque andino nublado relictual y su relación con la densidad del recurso alimenticio disponible para Agouti taczanowskii

During the loss of vegetation coverage as a consequence of antropic disturbance, changes are generated in the environmental conditions that can alter the plant com- position of the Andean forests. The plant species present differential responses to this changes, according to the level of tolerance they present. Therefore these variations were evaluated using as parameters the environmental and soil temperature, as well as the luminescence and humidity, in relation to the density of the feeding resource available for A. taczanowskii in an Andean forest with different degree of disturbance. The results show that the modification in the structure of the forest generates higher fluctuations in the analyzed abiotic factors in areas with less vegetation cover. The existence of the different families of plants consumed by A. taczanowskii \n areas of primary and secondary vegetation indicates that the registered microclimatic variations are according to the limits of tolerance for the evaluated plants, but on the whole they show an influence on the density with which they are represented in the plant community.