Jorge Perez-Quezada

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Chile

The establishment of plant species in coastal dune systems has received increasing attention in recent years due to their potential threats to the unique biotic and abiotic characteristics of these fragile ecosystems. Plants exhibiting invasive behavior, whether alien or native, merit particular focus in coastal dunes systems given their ability to...

La conservación de la biodiversidad dejó de ser un tema de interés solo para ecólogos y amantes de la naturaleza. Con el inicio del siglo XXI hemos asumido que los humanos dependemos de la biodiversidad y que somos los principales responsables de su deterioro. Por la misma razón, todos somos convocados a revertir la situación actual, descrita como...

Structural metrics from the NASA Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) are vital to support monitoring, restoration and protection of high biodiversity spots. The Chilean Patagonia is home of pristine and unique ecosystems where GEDI data can provide knowledge on structure and biomass and expand the current limitation in Patagonia on field...

The variability and drivers of carbon and water fluxes and their relationship to ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) in natural ecosystems of southern South America are still poorly understood. For 8 years (2015–2022), we measured carbon dioxide net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and evapotranspiration (ET) using eddy covariance towers in a temperate ra...

In the highlands of Costa Rica, poorly studied ecological formations such as the paramo and peatbogs are present. Peatbogs in Costa Rica are located in the Tapantí- Macizo de la Muerte National Park in the Cordillera de Talamanca. The aim of our study was to characterize the soil of high peatbogs with the purpose of providing scientific information...

The variability and drivers of carbon and water fluxes and their relationship to ecosystem water use efficiency (WUE) in natural ecosystems of southern South America are still poorly understood. For eight years (2015–2022), we measured water and carbon fluxes using eddy covariance towers in a temperate rainforest and a peatland in southern Chile. D...

Entre los años 2021-2022 se desarrolló el proyecto de extensión y educación am- biental “Descubriendo la cuenca del río Maipo: vivir la naturaleza e intercambiar la experiencia”, iniciativa interdisciplinaria y triestamental liderada por la Universidad de Chile, que permitió la vinculación de: (a) tres establecimientos educacionales ubicados en sec...

Successful restoration measures need a good understanding of how the composition, structure, and functioning of ecosystems change with degradation and what the best indicators of these changes are. To answer these questions , we worked on four ecosystem types in the Mediterranean Andes mountains in central Chile (from scle-rophyllous forest to Ande...

We estimated the amount of carbon (C) stored in terrestrial ecosystems of the Chilean Patagonia and the proportion within protected areas. We used existing public databases that provide information on C stocks in biomass and soils. Data were analyzed by ecosystem and forest type in the case of native forests. Our results show that some ecosystems h...

Measurements of ecosystem carbon (C) fluxes in temperate forests are concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, leaving the functionally diverse temperate forests in the Southern Hemisphere underrepresented. Here, we report 3 years (February 2018 to January 2021) of C fluxes, studied with eddy‐covariance and closed chamber techniques, in an endangere...

Agricultural activities are important contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in southern Chile. Three types of agricultural systems coexist within this region: traditional, conventional and agroecological. Historical changes in agricultural practices were identified from bibliographic sources and field surveys of 10 farms of each system typ...

Agricultural land use changes are expected to modify the carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) stocks compared to the native ecosystems they replace and result in changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes. To quantify these effects, we measured C-N-P stocks in four land cover classes (cropland, grassland, native shrubland and invaded shrubland)...

A wide range of studies highlights the ecological relevance of arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) promoting the nutrients and water acquisition, favoring plant defenses to cope with pests or adverse conditions such as drought, salinity, and presence of toxic elements, among others. In Chile, the studies on this topic are recent, although they have acquire...

Anthropogenic-based disturbances may alter peatland soil-plant causal associations and their ability to sequester carbon. Likewise, it is unclear how the vegetation attributes are linked with different soil C decomposition-based pools (i.e., live moss, debris, and poorly-to highly-decomposed peat) under grassing and harvesting conditions. Therefore...

En el marco de la discusión para generar una nueva Constitución, la Universidad de Chile expone una serie de temas y enfoques en el tema ambiental, los cuales surgen de la discusión de distintos actores de la Universidad y la sociedad civil, con el propósito de representar la diversidad de miradas en esta temática.

Many remote sensing-based evapotranspiration (RSBET) algorithms have been proposed in the past decades and evaluated using flux tower data, mainly over North America and Europe. Model evaluation across South America has been done locally or using only a single algorithm at a time. Here, we provide the first evaluation of multiple RSBET models, at a...

Large cities are both centers of demand for cultural ecosystem services (CES) and a source of environmental impacts. Assessing CES yields information to reduce the vulnerability of these services to such environmental impacts as well as to strengthen them in order to improve human well-being in cities. The Andean piedmont of Santiago is a natural m...

1 Vegetation attributes derived from species and plant functional types (PFTs) directly or indirectly drive the carbon (C) cycle in peatlands. However, anthropogenic-based disturbances may alter petland soil-plant interactions and their ability to sequester carbon. Likewise, it is unclear how the soil-plant linkages among different soil C decomposi...

Forest ecosystems are recognized for their large capacity to store carbon (C) in their aboveground and below-ground biomass and soil pools. While the distribution of C among ecosystem pools has been extensively studied, less is known about nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) pools and how these stocks relate to each other. There is also a need to under...

Forest fires can cause great changes in the composition, structure and functioning of forest ecosystems. We stud- ied the effects of a fire that occurred >50 years ago in a temperate rainforest that caused flooding conditions in a Placic Andosol to evaluate how long these effects last; we hypothesized that the effects of fire on the soil green- hou...

In October 2020, under COVID‐19 quarantine, AmeriFlux held its largest and one of its most successful annual meetings. Historically, ∼100 scientists attend; this meeting had over 400 registrants and participants. Participants expressed that this was among the best virtual meetings that they had ever attended, and 100% of post‐meeting survey respond...

Environmental and social crises in agriculture have led to growing recognition that more ecologically sustainable and socially just food and agricultural systems are needed. This thematic number of the International Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources gathers the papers submitted by authors who were due to be speakers at the workshop "Chal...

Globally, soils store two to three times as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere, and it is critical to understand how soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and uptake will respond to ongoing climate change. In particular, the soil-toatmosphere CO2 flux, commonly though imprecisely termed soil respiration (RS), is one of the largest car...

Hoy son muchas las comunidades que han sido beneficiadas con restitución de tierras mediante la Ley Indígena. Este proyecto fue pionero en realizar un acompañamiento técnico-productivo y organizacional a cinco comunidades indígenas de la región de la Araucanía, desarrollado por profesionales del área silvoagropecuaria, social, económica y de los re...

Se evaluó el efecto de la severidad de un incendio en el ensamble de artrópodos epigeos en un ecosistema de bosque esclerófilo en Quebrada de La Plata, Chile central. El muestreo de artrópodos se realizó en invierno de 2017 (seis meses después del incendio) mediante trampas de caída en sectores clasificados en tres categorías de severidad de incend...

A critical aspect of predicting soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations is the lack of available soil information; where information on soil characteristics is available, it is usually focused on regions of high agricultural interest. To date, in Chile, a large proportion of the SOC data have been collected in areas of intensive agricultural or fo...

El presente capítulo presenta una metodología para formular planes de manejo de caminos en Áreas Silvestres Protegidas (ASP) y zonas frágiles en relación a su gestión y manejo. La visión metodológica propuesta, en conjunto con las etapas realizadas, sigue una vía sistematizada que tiene como objetivo la formulación de este tipo de planes. La funcio...

A critical aspect of predicting soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations is the lack of available soil information; where information on soil characteristics is available, it is usually focused on regions of high agricultural interest. To date, in Chile, a large proportion of the SOC data have been collected in areas of intensive agricultural or fo...

La submesa Cambio de Uso del Suelo (CUS) tuvo como objetivo compilar y presentar en un informe la evidencia científica disponible sobre los cambios de uso del suelo y sus impactos en relación con las opciones de mitigación del cambio climático. Esta submesa contó con la participación de más de 30 científicos de diversas áreas de las ciencias ambien...

Peatlands are characterized by their large carbon (C) storage capacity and represent important C sinks globally. In southern Chile, young peatlands (few centuries old) have originated due to clearcutting or fire at forest sites with high precipitation on poorly drained soils. These novel ecosystems are called anthropogenic peatlands here. Their rol...

Tradicionalmente se asocia al suelo como el sustento de la vegetación, y por ende como un componente esencial de los sistemas productivos agrícolas y forestales. Sin embargo, el valor del suelo y la importancia de su conservación van mucho más allá de su rol más evidente, la producción de alimentos, existiendo un sinnúmero de bienes y servicios que...

One of the critical aspects in modelling soil organic carbon (SOC) predictions is the lack of access to soil information which is usually concentrated in regions of high agricultural interest. In Chile, most soil and SOC data to date is highly concentrated in 25 % of the territory that has intensive agricultural or forestry use. Vast areas beyond t...

Threats to ecosystems are closely linked to human development, whereas lack, insufficiency, and inefficiency of public policies are important drivers of environmental decline. Previous studies have discussed the contribution of IUCN's Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) in conservation issues; however, its applications in different policy fields and instr...

Peatlands are key reservoirs of belowground carbon (C) and their monitoring is important to assess the rapid changes in the C cycle caused by climate change and direct anthropogenic impacts. Frequently, information of peatland area and vegetation type estimated by remote sensing has been used along with soil measurements and allometric functions to...

Introduction Peatlands are key reservoirs of belowground carbon (C) stock and their monitoring is important to assess the rapid changes in the C cycle caused by climate change and anthropogenic impacts. We assessed the use of aboveground vegetation traits as proxies to predict peatland belowground C stock. First, the ecological relations between re...

Threats to natural ecosystems are closely linked to human development, and the lack, insufficiency or inefficiency of public policies are some of the most important drivers of negative effects on the environment. The contribution of the IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) to conservation topics has been discussed in previous studies; however, to da...

El Ministerio de Agricultura, en su compromiso con la actividad silvoagropecuaria y la armonía de esta con el medio ambiente, ha detectado la necesidad de impulsar iniciativas productivas que permitan la conservación de la biodiversidad y sus servicios ecosistémicos. Una de las acciones concretas para el desarrollo de este objetivo ha sido el fomen...

Un problema para las políticas, planes y estrategias de conservación de la biodiversidad en Chile tiene relación con que los ecosistemas naturales en gran medida se encuentran bajo régimen de propiedad privada. En ellos sus propietarios muchas veces realizan actividades productivas que generan externalidades negativas sobre los componentes del pais...

La naturaleza es la base de nuestras vidas en el planeta y su biodiversidad cumple un rol fundamental dentro del funcionamiento de los ecosistemas. Los servicios ambientales que otorgan los ecosistemas se han agrupado en servicios de provisión, de regulación, culturales y de soporte, y son considerados vitales para el bienestar del mundo (TEEB2010)...

El libro Metodologías aplicadas para la conservación de la biodiversidad en Chile, de los editores Jorge Pérez Quezada y Patricio Rodrigo, entrega herramientas para la clasificación, priorización y manejo de la biodiversidad para asegurar su conservación. En los 15 capítulos que lo componen, se describen las metodologías que han sido usadas en proy...

El libro recorre las principales especies de los bosques templados lluviosos del sur del país, dando a conocer sus características botánicas, distribución, uso y relación con lo indígena, junto con aspectos ecológicos y de su cosecha.

Esta guía de talla las buenas prácticas productivas para la ganadería, apicultura, turismo y agricultura, que complementan a la guía y zonificación de la capacidad de acogida del Distrito de Conservación de Suelo, Agua y Bosque de San José de Maipo. Es una guía didáctica y fácil de usar por los potenciales usuarios, y especialmente diseñada para te...

The natural history of most species of Telmatobius that live in the Altiplano of the Andes is unknown due to the difficulty of performing long-term studies and the logistics of working in these remote areas with extreme environmental conditions. One of these anurans inhabits the springs of the Ascotán salt flat of Chile. Here, we provide for the fi...

Ecosystems where carbon fluxes are being monitored on a global scale are strongly biased toward temperate Northern Hemisphere latitudes. However, forest and moorland ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere may contribute significantly to the global and regional C balance and are affected by different climate systems. Here, we present the first data f...

The efforts and actions of conservation have been focused mainly in species or population levels. However, the UICN has recently developed an analogous methodology to the Red List of Threatened species to assess the risk of ecosystems following similar criteria, creating the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE). Among the most important challenges to the a...

El piedemonte andino de la provincia de Santiago contiene extensos parches de ecosistemas naturales que permiten la provisión y regulación de diversos servicios ecosistémicos (SE). Este estudio tuvo como objetivo evaluar los SE de purificación de aire, mitigación de movimientos en masa y mitigación de inundaciones, debido a su alta relevancia para...

El rango de distribución geográfica de una especie es dinámico, es decir, se está expandiendo y/o contrayendo en el tiempo1. En la medida en que la sequía y las altas temperaturas se vuelven más frecuentes e intensas en el borde cálido/seco, la mortalidad tendería a aumentar y, por ende, generar una contracción del rango de distribución. Entre los...

Peatlands are ecosystems of great relevance, because they have an important number of ecological functions that provide many services to mankind. However, studies focusing on plant diversity, addressed from the remote sensing perspective, are still scarce in these environments. In the present study, predictions of vascular plant richness and divers...

Background: Understanding the role of agroecosystems as habitat for wildlife is crucial for long-term conservation planning, as different crop stratification and landscape elements can influence bird communities, which are also affected by seasonality. The goal of our study was to determine how agricultural landscapes varying in land cover characte...

Making accurate estimations of daily and annual Rs fluxes is key for understanding the carbon cycle process and projecting effects of climate change. In this study we used high-frequency sampling (24-measurements per day) of Rs in a temperate rainforest during one year, with the objective of answering the questions of when and how often measurement...

Making accurate estimations of daily and annual Rs fluxes is key for understanding the carbon cycle process and projecting effects of climate change. In this study we used high-frequency sampling (24 measurements per day) of Rs in a temperate rainforest during 1 year, with the objective of answering the questions of when and how often measure- ment...

Modalidad: Comunicación libre Línea temática: El Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas del Estado y su contribución a la conservación del patrimonio natural y cultural del país. Resumen Los ecosistemas a nivel mundial han sido sometidos a los embates de las actividades del ser humano, causando un fuerte impacto sobre la función, composición y estruc...

During the last decade, the IUCN has developed criteria analogous to the Red List of Threatened Species to per- form similar risk assessment on ecosystems, creating the Red List of Ecosystems methodology. One of the most significant challenges for the construction of these lists is the gathering and availability of the information needed to apply t...

A method to predict vascular plant richness using spectral and textural variables in a heterogeneous wetland is presented. Plant richness was measured at 44 sampling plots in a 16-ha anthropogenic peatland. Several spectral indices, first-order statistics (median and standard deviation), and second-order statistics [metrics of a gray-level co-occur...

Peatlands are a type of wetland characterized by the accumulation of organic matter, called peat, and are important carbon reservoirs. In areas with poor drainage, human-induced forest fires and logging can produce flooded conditions and organic matter accumulation, which generates an ecosystem called anthropogenic peatland. Productive management a...

A nivel global se ha reconocido un aumento en las tasas de declive de las superficies de los ecosistemas hacia los últimos años. En Chile la preocupación se ha centrado en la ecorregión mediterránea, la cual goza de gran riqueza y endemismos, que la convierten en Hotspost de la biodiversidad a nivel mundial. Esto contrasta con las fuertes presiones...

La presente guía resume los resultados del proyecto “Guía para la Regeneración y Recuperación de Bosque y Matorral de Ecosistemas de Montaña en la Región Metropolitana”, financiado por el Fondo de Investigación en Bosque Nativo de CONAF (022/2012). Este estudio se realizó en los pisos vegetacionales de bosque esclerófilo, bosque esclerófilo andino...

The carbon stock associated with tree biomass was estimated in evergreen forests near the town of Inío in Chiloé Island, Chile (43º21' S, 74º07' W), analyzing its relation with biotic and abiotic properties. A total of 14 sampling plots of 20×50 m were located at variable distances from Inío and different elevations, slopes and aspects. At each plo...

Se presenta un modelo utilizando variables texturales derivadas de teledetección para predecir la riqueza de plantas vasculares de una turbera antropogénica en la Isla de Chiloé utilizando un algoritmo Random Forest

El proyecto GlobalSoilMap nace con el propósito de proveer información acerca de las propiedades del suelo, producidas en forma consistente, que sirva de soporte para la toma de deciciones en temas medioambientales y sociales claves como seguridad alimentaria, cambio climático, degradación de suelo y captura de carbono. El carboo orgánico es un com...

Background/Question/Methods The agricultural matrix that runs from ocean to mountains has been part of Mediterranean-climate ecosystems for centuries and is the primary factor in why these systems are among the most threatened on Earth. Advancing our understanding of ecology is critical in conservation planning in the Chilean Mediterranean ecosyst...

Actual evapotranspiration (ET) represents an ecosystem key functional variable, directly related with vegetation properties, particularly in water limited environments. The present study aims to map ET using a surface energy fluxes modelling approach, and explore its relation with topographical and floristic composition features, in an arid watersh...

Sclerophyllous shrubs and forests are predominant in semiarid Central Chile and have a long history of degradation by fire, cultivation, firewood extraction and grazing. The aim of this study was to compare the amount and environmental drivers of soil respiration across a disturbance gradient in sclerophyllous ecosystems in the National Reserve Rob...

Litter extraction (LE) is a common practice in many forests of the world. This process can cause long-term depletion of C substrates, thereby affecting ecosystem balances. The effects of LE on soil properties such as soil respiration (Rs), soil water content (q), soil temperature (T), microbial activity, and dissolved organic C (DOC) are not well u...

Background: Quillaja saponaria Mol., Cryptocarya alba Mol. Looser, and Lithraea caustica Molina Hook et Arn., are common sclerophyllous species in Mediterranean Central Chile. Mesophyll conductance, g(m), may strongly limit photosynthesis in these semiarid environments. Results: Simultaneous measurements of gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence...

Soil is one of the major reservoir of carbon on earth. Changes generated when moving from natural ecosystems to agroecosystems cause significant losses of the Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), making it necessary to have appropriate methods to evaluate its status. The objective of this work was to model the spatial distribution of SOC in Chile, between Va...

Background and Aims: Central Chile represents a large area of viticultural potential for high-quality wine production. Although climate has been commonly accepted as one of the main drivers of Chilean viticultural success, its main features have not been described from a viticultural perspective. Our work focused on analysing the spatial climatic s...

Background and Aims: Central Chile represents a large area of viticultural potential for high-quality wine production. Although climate has been commonly accepted as one of the main drivers of Chilean viticultural success, its main features have not been described from a viticultural perspective. Our work focused on analysing the spatial climatic s...

We studied the seasonal fluctuation of soil respiration (R(S)), and its root-dependent (R(R)) and basal (R(B)) components, in a Vitis vinifera (Chardonnay) vineyard. The R(S) components were estimated through independent field methods (y-intercept and trenching) and modeled on the basis of a Q(10) response to soil temperature, and fine and coarse r...

Background/Question/Methods Quantification of ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUEe) in natural and managed ecosystems is important to address uncertainties related to the effects of global warming and land use change. This is especially important in arid ecosystems, where the impacts of these processes are expected to be high. We continuously mea...

The pattern of carbon (C) allocation among the different pools is an important ecosystem structural feature, which can be modified as a result of changes in environmental conditions that can occur gradually (e.g., climatic change) or abruptly (e.g., management practices). This study quantified the C pools of plant biomass, litter and soil in an ari...

El presente manual constituye una iniciativa sin precedentes, toda vez que incluye herramientas de carácter práctico que orientan a los propietarios de territorios cordilleranos del Cajón del Maipo en la aplicación de instrumentos de planificación predial que les permitan producir de manera sustentable, con una visión a largo plazo, y que a su vez...

Owing to its high water use efficiency (WUE), cactus pear (Opuntia ficusindica) is an alternative for producing biomass with bioenergetic purpose in arid and semi-arid zones. In Chile, irrigated cactus pear plantations with such purpose are being planned and germplasm with high WUE, but also high radiation use efficiency (RUE) needs to be screened....

A mobile, closed-chamber system (CC) was used to measure carbon and water fluxes on four land-use types common in the Kazakh steppe ecoregion. Land uses represented crop (wheat or barley, WB), abandoned land (AL), crested wheatgrass (CW), and virgin land (VL). Measurements were conducted during the growing season of 2002 in northern Kazakhstan at t...

The process of quality control of micrometeorological and carbon dioxide (CO2) flux data can be subjective and may lack repeatability, which would undermine the results of many studies. Multivariate statistical methods and time series analysis were used together and independently to detect and replace outliers in CO2 flux data derived from a Bowen...