University of Amsterdam (NL) - Páramo vegetation research, Central Andean Cordillera - Colombia

The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) from University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been working on the Paramos of Colombia since 1970, collecting information on different aspects of plant ecology in the paramo. The Central Cordillera area include the National Natural Park Los Nevados, National Natural Park Purace and Nevado del Huila. This dataset is generated from 5 sources: 1. A study by Helmut Sturm and Orlando Rangel in 1985 about the ecology of Andean paramos, in the National Natural Park Los Nevados and in the Nevado del Huila (Huila volcano). 2. A study of monitoring and modelling of diverse and dynamic ecosystems in the paramos of los Nevados National Park by Bob Pels in 1990. 3. A Ph.D. study about the vegetation of the paramo and its dynamics in the volcanic massif Ruiz-Tolima, done by Sonia Salamanca in 1991, this project was part of a bigger project called ECOANDES which cover different aspects of the ecology of the central cordillera in Colombia. 4. A study on the phytosociology of plant communities of the National Natural Park Purace, done by Andres Duque in 1988. All studies provided information on the occurrence and location of 6947 plant species from the Paramo in this area collected in 332 releves. For the purpose of the GBIF data-publishing, vegetation releve data were converted into species occurrence data.