Specific Diversity and Zerophyc Adaptation of the Lomas Vegetation, along the Coastal Desert of South America.

洛马斯植被是出现在秘鲁和智利沿海沙漠中的季节性草地。它只出现在春天（从8月到11月或12月），生长非常迅速，一下子就开了。一般来说，果实形成后，它会在很短的时间内消失。此外，它们沿太平洋海岸从北到南分布，距离上非常分散，因此每个草甸（称为洛马）彼此相距约100公里或更远。因此，情况似乎与海洋岛屿相似。本项目拟从海岛生物学的角度研究各海岛间植物物种的分类多样性。实际上，实地调查主要是在智利圣地亚哥以北约700公里的Copiapo附近的沙漠进行的。我们还打算分析这种植被的物理背景；为此目的进行了地形和气候学调查。洛马社区的生长季节被限制在一个短时间内，在此期间，海雾可以提供足够的水分，当地人称之为“garua”。因此，生长在洛马斯的植物的生命周期必须在不到三个月的时间内完成。在这方面，对Calandrinia和Fortunetia等几个物种进行了生长分析调查。此外，还对这些孤立植物种群的传粉和种子传播机制进行了调查研究。因此，作为lomas群落的主要分类群之一的Nolana属的主要传粉者被观察到为蜜蜂。还调查了埋藏种子的资产负债表（即所谓的种子库）以及该地区几个点的气象数据。

The Lomas vegetation is a seasonal meadow which appears in the coastal desert of Peru and Chile.It occurs only in Spring (from August to November or December), and grows very rapidly to bloom all at once. After fruitfication in general, it disappeares in a very short duration.Besides, they occur along the Pacific Coast from north to south, very seperatedly in distance, consequently each meadow (called as lomas) is isolated each other about 100km or by further. Therefore the situation seems similar to an oceanic island. In this project we intended to study the taxonomic diversification of plant species between each loma from the viewpoint of island biology.Actually, the field surveys have been carried out mainly in the desert near Copiapo, about 700km north of Santiago, Chile.We have also intended to analyze the physical background of this vegetation; topographical and climatological surveys have been carried out for this purpose.The growing season of the lomas community is restricted to a short period during which sufficient moisture is available from the sea-fog, locally called as "garua". Therefore the life-cycle of the plants growing in the lomas must be completed within less than about three months. In this respect the growth analytical survey has been carried out on several species, such as Calandrinia and Fortunetia.Furthermore, the surveys on the pollination and seed-dispersal mechanism in these isolated plant populations are studied. As a result, the main pollinator of the genus Nolana, one of the principal taxonomic group of the lomas community has been observed as bee.The balance sheets of buried seed (so called as seed-bank) were also surveyed as well as meteological data at several points within the area.