Teachers and students undertake expedition to Chingaza

The scientific expedition was carried out in the Las Pailas area, near the department of Meta. Three sampling events were conducted there as part of the project entitled: Characterization of Niches in Sympatric Plant Species of the Chingaza Páramo and their Implications for Conservation Strategies.

The study focused on points marked using forty coordinates associated with different plant species, and aimed to collect plant material from three types of puya found in the area. Similarly, strategies were developed to begin describing the stakeholders in the territory and their dynamics in terms of governance and organization.

The associations of these plants with endophytic microorganisms, insects, and lichens that develop in these niches were also evaluated. Likewise, the study sought to describe the stakeholders in the territory and their dynamics within the environment in relation to the conservation of native or endemic plants of the páramo. In this case, the aim was to design a conservation strategy for these plants that takes into account not only the abiotic requirements for the survival of the species, but also the adaptive factors that allow the species to survive in the presence of their competitors.

Finally, it is worth highlighting that in this work, in addition to UCundinamarca, the National University (UNAL) has been involved since the end of 2021 and this first sampling was carried out in two phases with a first visit to the area by the UNAL team and the second phase by the research professors: Carlos Calderón, Daniel Cubillos, Luz Nancy Mateus, Liliana García, Pedro Padilla and Rubén González and the students: Jennifer Pineda, Leidy Alba and Alejandro Moreno all from the agronomic engineering program Facatativá.

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