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1. Map of the Pachitea study area. Land cover classification was carried out in the area shaded gray. Polygons delimit indigenous communities. 500 m buffers around rivers are dark gray. The communities of Laguna-Raya and Santa Maria are labeled. Analysis of nutrient and organic matter chemistry along runoff pathways in a headwater stream at 2400 m asl in the Pachitea basin demonstrated strong terrestrial controls on N, P, and dissolved organic carbon. During the wet season, the narrow riparian zone buffered significant increases in nitrate (NO 3) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) originating in ground waters flowing from adjacent forested uplands (2)(Saunders et al. 2006). The riparian zone held a 'reserve buffering capacity' that significantly reduced increases in NO 3and DON concentrations in the river. Retention of soluble reactive phosphorus, ammonium (NH 4 + ), and dissolved organic phosphorus and carbon was not significant. Although absolute values of different parameters varied according to season (wet or dry), patterns of groundwater nitrogen retention were consistent throughout the year. Another important finding was that storm runoff pathways such as overland flow and throughfall carried higher concentrations of inorganic nitrogen to streams, thereby negating the retention capabilities of riparian soils (Ramos et al. 2003, Saunders et al. 2006). Nutrient monitoring data from larger rivers in
Source publication
Ecosystem services are fundamental to the development of sustainable landscapes but are
largely ignored or taken for granted in land management strategies. Ecosystems, and the
ecological processes that define them, form the natural infrastructure supporting human
activities to enhance the economic and social well-being of communities. This chapt...
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The many ways that people have used and managed land throughout history has emerged as a primary cause of land-cover change around the world. Thus, land use and land management increasingly represent a fundamental source of change in the global environment. Despite their global importance, however, many decisions about the management and use of lan...
Citations
... Certainly, the lack of strict land-use restrictions around water reservoirs and dams in dry ecoregions threatens the sustainability of water provision to human settlements in the near future. The threat increases when climate change impacts are taken into account (Castellanos et al. 2008). According to a thorough analysis recently carried out by Meir and Pennington (2011) on the possible consequences of climate change on neotropical dry forest using a dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM), the estimated warming rates for TDF regions are consistent with, or slightly above, the global predicted means of approximately 2-4°C warming by 2100. ...
... This is necessary to avoid greater negative effects from soil erosion, pollution and sedimentation of rivers and streams and water reservoirs in the near future. Last and more importantly, it is imperative to understand that conservation of tropical dry forest will maintain and enhance ecosystems functions increasing the landscape resilience to hydrological impacts from global change (Castellanos et al. 2008). Although our understanding of these impacts is certainly limited and more research efforts are needed Branfireun 2013, 2014), detrimental consequences in terms of hydrological dynamics are expected to affect vast extensions of TDF environments in the region. ...
In this paper, we provide a comprehensive evaluation of the current regional literature associated with tropical dry forest (TDF) along three main axes: biodiversity, carbon and water conservation in the neotropics. Our analysis provides three key findings: (1) from the biodiversity point of view, we document that high degrees of endemism, diversity of plant life forms and ecophysiological types as key elements for their conservation across the Americas, (2) from the carbon storage point of view, we found that if the world’s TDFs were restored they whole ecosystem would comprise 22 P
g of carbon in aboveground biomass. In the Americas alone, TDF restoration could potentially add 8 P
g of carbon to the potential total ecosystem carbon stock, (3) we found that at least 66 % of water reservoirs in the neotropics are located within dry forest ecoregions; therefore, the conservation of the quality of freshwater sources for human consumption in the neotropics is directly dependent on the sustainable management of TDF-dominated landscapes. In this paper, we stress that advocacy for conservation and sustainable management of TDF will benefit from integrating it’s value in biophysical terms (e.g. carbon, biodiversity) with key ecosystem services and uses (e.g. its impact on hydrological dynamics and its potential for fostering ecotourism initiatives and entrepreneurship). By doing this, support and awareness could be wider and more effective in the long term, especially from national and local communities.
