Alejandro Velázquez

National Autonomous University of Mexico | UNAM · Centre of Research in Environmental Geography

http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=53906202

Land use-cover changes (LUCC) such as deforestation, have resulted as global warming and a reduction of environmental services, with large negative consequences for mankind. Effects based on statistics alone have not been sufficient enough to detect, stop and eventually revert negative LUCC processes that are strongly related to biodiversity loss....

Michoacán, as one of the most species-rich provinces of Mexico and with high levels of endemism, was used for testing the potential of a conservation approach based on biodiversity as determined by scientists and local stakeholder's preferences. The resulting zones covered over 17% of the area of Michoacán in 18 zones. As a result of this study the...

Questions What is the potential use of maps derived from a merged geographical and phytosociological approach to support the design of public environmental policies? Do these approaches and data sources deliver complementary land-cover/vegetation maps? Objective The present article documents a joint phytosociological and geographical approach to i...

Multivariate analysis was used to describe the composition and distribution of vegetation types on the slopes of the volcanoes Tláloc and Pelado, Mexico. These volcanoes are situated in the transitional zone between the Holarctic and Neotropical floristic regions, which offers a partial explanation for the relatively high α and β diversities. Previ...

Our editorial introduces a Special Collection of scientific articles on current vegetation research in the most biodiverse of all biogeographic realms, the Neotropics. It contains nine scientific contributions dedicated to vegetation data, description and classification. Four research papers provide new vegetation classifications of important Neotr...

Aims: The task of classifying and naming Mexican vegetation types has been undertaken by previous botanists, ecologists, and mapping agencies. However, discrepancies remain due to the lack of criteria and joint efforts from a geographical and botanical perspective. We aim to unravel the complex interactions between climate and vegetation in Mexico...

Participatory landscape conservation is an innovative approach that weaves together theoretical models and practical applications. Intertropical regions, such as Mexico, face challenges to conciliate regional governability, social justice, and nature conservation. The State of Michoacan is one of these regions where such challenges are exacerbated,...

On the verge of the continuous and exacerbated rhythm of global geopolitical set up, it is urgent that Higher Education Institutions ought to be reinventing themselves for providing educational opportunities for new generation of students who will be the decision makers of the next generation. Environmental Transdisciplinary Sciences is one example...

Drought occurs naturally all over the world. Global warming has led an increase in the areas affected by this phenomenon. The study of drought involves the analysis of indicators and indices used to assess changes in the hydrological cycle of a region. A large number of indices developed for drought monitoring are based on meteorological and hydrol...

La sede de la UNAM en Alemania se vincula con socios clave para impulsar la relación de largo aliento y el desarrollo de programas académicos de movilidad estudiantil. Conozca la forma en que esto fortalece la cooperación inter e intrainstitucional.

Forest landscape structure comprises a mosaic of natural and human-modified units, which when well depicted, may help to plan and implement forest management policies, which commonly assume territorial homogeneity. Usually, forest policies lack the use of spatial tools that can help scale up conservation program in heterogeneous forested landscapes...

Lagomorpha (lagomorphs), the order of mammals including pikas, hares, and rabbits, is distributed on all continents. The order currently is hypothesized to comprise 12 genera and 108 species, split into two families: Ochotonidae (pikas) and Leporidae (rabbits and hares). Molecular and morphological attempts have been undertaken to resolve the phylo...

ContextLandscape domestication (LD) has been an important mechanism for subsistence in traditional rural societies. In the last decade, important theoretical advances have been accomplished with valuable archaeological, historical, and ecological approaches for understanding LD processes, while integrated spatial approximations are still scanty.Obj...

La crisis ambiental presente, a diferencia de otros grandes eventos catastróficos a nivel planetario, por primera vez deriva del com�portamiento de una sola especie. Por su magnitud sin precedente, nos referimos a la “Antroera” como al corto periodo de transforma�ción del planeta Tierra por conducto del Homo sapiens (Hs). Las diversas esferas socia...

The Mixteca Alta region in Oaxaca, Mexico is characterized by its severely degraded landscapes. In the last three decades, the region has experienced a remarkable local forest transition. This paper reveals the drivers that favored local forest transition in five communities of Mixteca Alta. Three questions were addressed: how much forest cover was...

The Mixteca Alta region in Oaxaca, Mexico is characterized by its severely degraded landscapes. In the last three decades, the region has experienced a remarkable local forest transition. This paper reveals the drivers that favored local forest transition in five communities of Mixteca Alta. Three questions were addressed: how much forest cover was...

Modern pollen rain analysis is useful to understand the pollen–vegetation relationship and to improve the understanding of pollen spectra in sediments by reconstructing past vegetation changes. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the pollen and vegetation relationships across the landscape mosaic in central México. A total of 57 moss and surface w...

Introducción La internacionalización de la universidad pública; un alto en el camino Federico Fernández Christlieb Alejandro Velázquez Montes La internacionalización no es un fin en sí mismo, sino una parte de la estrategia que pueden adoptar las instituciones de educación superior para conseguir sus objetivos académicos. Debemos empezar, por tant...

Background: seasonally dry tropical forests are considered critical and important ecosystems because they harbor exceptional biological diversity. Mexico lacks sound phytosociological studies of Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest and Michoacán is no exception. The present study may be regarded the first phytosociological in most of the Mexican pacific...

Romerolagus diazi assessment 2020

Palm plants provide important benefits for rural communities around the world. Of the 95 native palm species in Mexico, Brahea dulcis (Soyate palm) has been tagged as an important resource for many Mesoamerican ethnical groups. Scientific and empirical knowledge concerning Soyate is thematically fragmented and disassociated, meaning that sound sust...

Reconstruction of ancient environmental conditions based on traditional analyses such as pollen and other proxies has provided understanding of climate variation and its influence on vegetation. These studies, however, are restricted to site-specific scales and have overseen the spatial understanding of past vegetation patterns. Hence, reconstructi...

Antecedentes y Objetivos: El límite superior del bosque es un ecosistema que alberga comunidades herbáceas y forestales con singular presencia de endemismos y con una función relevante en la captación, recarga y transporte de agua, lo que los define como nodos de provisión de bienes y servicios ambientales. Lo anterior es de particular significado...

Sustainable science ultimately seeks to minimize the negative impact of human activities on nature, however its role is regarded as limited, chiefly because it lacks a robust spatial framework to join ecological and social processes. Space, from a territorial perspective, is the result of historical interactions between socio-economic forces govern...

Vegetation maps have been key tools for synthesizing large amounts of information and supporting geographical location of biodiversity. Traditional vegetation map development demands acquisition and processing of expensive supplies, expertise of qualified interpreters and extensive fieldwork; nevertheless vegetation maps are crucial in areas where...

Michoacán is among the states with higher rainfed agriculture production in México, and has substantial impact on the national economy. Despite the agricultural importance of this state, no agroclimatic studies have been perform to identify the Length of the Growing Period (LGP), which is the number of months when the climatic conditions are suitab...

Reconstructing the vegetation landscape, as an indicator of climatic oscillations, has been often based upon pollen records guided by the so-called paleoecolocical approach. Outcomes of this approach, however, have limited chorological implications. The main objective of this manuscript is to develop an integrative method of approaches (bioclimatic...

La Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), institución pública comprometida con los desafíos nacionales, constituye no sólo el espacio más importante de investigación y docencia del país, sino también de construcción de alternativas y propuestas a estos retos. Con esta capacidad y potencial, y a la luz de los cambios sociales y políticos qu...

The objective of the present paper is to provide a holistic framework to delineate “territories of opportunity” where agrarian communities can manage areas to enhance the conservation of large vertebrates. The study was conducted Mexico, which is sociologically, culturally and ecologically complex, similar to other “megadiverse” countries. We condu...

Las políticas públicas (PP) se definen como aquellas acciones diseñadas, implementadas y evaluadas por el gobierno, que operan a través de programas, cuyo n último es mejorar o solucionar problemas sociales a corto y largo plazo. Una de ciencia recurrente en el diseño de las políticas públicas es la falta de análisis de la complejidad del contexto...

Geomorphological inquiry has addressed the relation of cultural landscape features, such as land use, with landforms in different environments and under different land use regimes. Usually, these complex relationships have been pursuit by simple map overlaying in a geographic information system (GIS). This research argues that the results of map ov...

The State of Michoacán harbors an outstanding overlap between natural and cultural richness as a result of intermingled climatic, geological, geographical and ecological conditions. The climate is the main factor in the establishment of the life on the earth's surface. According to diverse authors, the climate is the first regulator of the structur...

During this past decade, there have existed two realities in the study of vegetation. On the one hand, there has been an enormous quantity of information amassed, and, on the other, applying any of the existing classification systems to specific conditions in Mexico can be difficult. This has led to reflection, upon analysis, revision, readjustment...

Vegetation is formed by plant species growing as the result of a long development process consistent with the places they inhabit and which constitutes a fundamental part of ecosystems. As a result, vegetation is understood as resulting from the effects of various environmental factors on sets of species which cohabit in a determined space and peri...

The objective of this chapter was to return to the classification systems used across the whole of Mexico to illustrate explicitly the mechanics of affinity and compatibility between these various systems and SECLAVEMEX, retaining the strengths of previously proposed systems but resolving inconsistencies prevalent among them.

Vegetation has undergone drastic changes throughout the history of man. Depending on the era, the culture and the purposes, the approach to vegetation has been wide and varied. From the dawn of mankind, medicine men and shamans, and later philosophers and wise men, have sought to increase their knowledge of plants, their relationship with their env...

Classification sensu lato pursues the recognition of categories, the hierarchical arrangement expressing the (dis)similarity between them and the unique and distinct denominations between levels of division (Anonymous 2003). These principles have been applied across various disciplines related to biology, such as taxonomy, systematics, and phylogen...

Vegetation, either natural or cultural, from the local to global scale, portrays the baseline for land-use planning. In order to enhance the role of vegetation in land-use planning, distribution patterns in map formats need to be constructed.

El estado de Michoacán alberga una yuxtaposición de riquezas culturales y naturales destacable que se entrelazan entre condiciones geológicas, geográficas y ecológicas. Este patrimonio natural y cultural está hoy día amenazado, por ende, los tomadores de decisiones buscan información de línea base para restaurar y reorientar las acciones de desarro...

This book outlines the transitions between cultured and natural land cover/vegetation types and their implications in the search for alternatives to reverse the trend of anthropogenic environmental degradation. It also elaborates on the proposed “standardized hierarchical Mexican vegetation classification system” and geobotanical mapping, a critica...

This chapter provides a thorough description of an on-going case study of forest community management, Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro. This indigenous community has undergone a number of natural and cultural catastrophes, which served to re-invent their indigenous and communal identity needed to engage into sound forest management in the long term....

Abstract. Rigorous mapping of climatic patterns outstands as one of the mayor issues concerning climatic change. This paper investigates the extent of the bioclimatic approach to develop a rigorous cartographic methodology to express climatic diversity patterns. Michoacan, Mexico was chosen to represent a region of complex geo-ecological layout whe...

Land use and cover changes trigger multi-factorial responses with tangible and intangible effects. Driving forces governing changes are scale-, place- and time-dependent; because of their complexity, a multi-scalar analysis is required to determine conjoint causation. Studies using multi-scalar approach in semiarid scrubland ecosystems are scanty....

Parks represent a remarkable cultural construct targeted towards maintaining functional ecological integrity and biodiversity regardless of the cost and consequence. In Revolutionary Parks: Conservation, Social Justice, and Mexico’s National Parks, Emily Wakild tackles the subject of national parks as a cultural construct by initially reviewing how...

Mexico is relatively advanced in its preparation for international policy on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) and has many of the pre-conditions needed to support a community approach in the implementation of a national REDD+ programme, particularly as regards tenure of forests and experience with community forest...

Mexican lagomorphs (15 species) represent part of Mexico's natural heritage which invoke contrasting perceptions. On the one side, some species are granted as threatening of ecological disturbances due to its versatility and adaptation to man-made changes. On the other, a number of species are highly threatened and some at the verge of extinction....

Landscape changes are driven by a combination of physical, ecological and socio-cultural factors. Hence, a large amount of information is necessary to monitor these changes and to develop effective strategies for management and conservation. For this, novel strategies for combining social and environmental data need to be developed. The purpose of...

En México uno de los temas ambientales de mayor controversia en los últimos años es la magnitud y el ritmo del fenómeno de deforestación. Lo vasto y heterogéneo del territorio nacional, la inaccesibilidad en algunas de sus regiones, la compleja dinámica de cambio de la vegetación y las dificultades asociadas a las definiciones formales del marco le...

Summary It has been suggested that weaknesses in rights and land tenure is one of the important causes of forest-related violence. We go beyond rights and tenure to examine relationships between deforestation, forest-related violence, and multi-scale forest governance in a situation of secure tenure rights in comparative case studies of four commun...

Local knowledge and land use practices, along with the multiple visions of landscapes of local actors, can provide information complementary to that of conventional scientific appraisals. The goal of this study is to understand how local people actually recognize and use different landscape units and the environmental goods and services provided by...

Background/Question/Methods The U.S. National Vegetation Classification (USNVC) has recently been completely revised through the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Vegetation Subcommittee. That committee, representing a partnership between federal agencies, the Ecological Society of America’s Vegetation Panel, NatureServe, and other organizat...

The present contribution explores likely socio-cultural and institutional factors that better correlate with successful forest community management in Mexico. To this end, 8 Forest Agricultural Units of the Durango State and 8 of the Michoacán State were analyzed. In each unit, six socio-cultural driving variables were measured and five response va...

We assessed deforestation in Southeast Mexico (a surface area of 29 000 km2 in seven states) through the comparison of land use/land cover maps at a scale of 1:250 000. This facilitated mapping of the land use/land cover change (LULCC) processes and calculation of the rates of change and the change matrix for the period 1978–2000. An original metho...

Land use conversion typically implicates deforestation and fragmentation of primary land cover types, which invariably translates into impoverishment of both natural and cultural capital. Understanding where conversion is taking place crucially underpins sound environmental policy instruments to prevent these enormous social and economic costs. Thi...

Depicting geographic areas encompassing relevant territorial information is essential for proper land-use planning. The literature provides scant examples dealing with integration of socio-economic and biophysical attributes at the territorial level in order to bridge the gap between biophysical data and human society in regional planning. The goal...

Resumen La vegetación como expresión evolutiva de aglomera-dos de especies en un lugar y a un tiempo determinado ha sido objeto de estudio de naturalistas, geógrafos, médicos y, por supuesto, de biólogos. Los biólogos han centrado su esfuerzo en entender la estructura, composición y dinámica de la vegetación en el tiempo. Hoy en día resulta igualme...

ABSTRACT Background: seasonally dry tropical forests are considered critical and important ecosystems because they harbor exceptional biological diversity. Mexico lacks sound phytosociological studies of Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest and Michoacán is no exception. The present study may be regarded the first phytosociological in most of the Mexican...

Resumen Como muchos países tropicales, México presenta im-portantes procesos de cambio de uso/cobertura del suelo, dentro de los cuales destaca la deforestación. Como en la mayor parte del mundo, aún no existe en México la cultura de someter las bases de datos car-tográficas a una evaluación rigurosa de su fiabilidad, lo cual abre la puerta a cuest...