ECOLOGICAL CONDITION AND ANIMAL CARRYING CAPACITY IN ANDEAN GRASSLANDS IN NATURAL POST CULTIVATION RESTORATION WITH LEPIDIUMMEYENII WALPERS

The Andean grassland ecosystems experience a threat of desertification due to the change of use, in the central Andes of Peru, the crop of LepidiummeyeniiWalpers constitutes one of the causes, so the progress of the ecological condition (CE), the animal carrying capacity (CcA) and some edaphic characteristics, in plots of two, three, five, six and eight years post-harvest in seasons (rain and drought). Ten plots were evaluated by the linear transection method of intercept points. The analysis of the mixed general linear model and ANOVA were performed by Rstudio v.3.5.1 and CANOCO v.1.4 for multivariate analysis. Significant differences were found between native vegetation (VN) and revegetation plots (RV), between seasonal periods and RV time for p ≤ 0.05. The VN CE was fair and in RV it ranged from poor to very poor. The CcA in VN was between 1.1 ± 0.64 sheep units per hectare per year (SU/ha/year) and in RV it oscillated between 0.2 ± 0.16 and 1.0 ± 0.44 SU/ha/year between two and eight years. Evident recovery was observed from the sixth year. Organic matter, nitrogen and time were the components that showed linear correspondence in the recovery of desirable species for livestock.