About
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Introduction
peatlands
mountains
tropical alpine
GHG
LULUC
Current institution
Additional affiliations
January 2014 - November 2015
January 2004 - May 2007
September 2013 - August 2015
Medellin Botanical Garden
Position
- Researcher
Education
August 2007 - May 2012
January 2005 - March 2007
January 1994 - December 2001
Publications
Publications (64)
Peatlands are some of the world’s most carbon-dense ecosystems and release substantial quantities of greenhouse gases when degraded. However, conserving peatlands in many tropical areas is challenging due to limited knowledge of their distribution. To address this, we surveyed soils and plant communities in Colombia’s eastern lowlands, where few pe...
The extent and distribution of tropical peatlands, and their importance as a vulnerable carbon (C) store, remain poorly quantified. Although large peatland complexes in Peru, the Congo basin, and Southeast Asia have been mapped in detail, information on many other tropical areas is uncertain. In the Eastern Colombian lowlands, peatland area estimat...
High mountain peatlands in Colombia play a crucial role in water regulation, store significant carbon, and yet remain poorly studied and threatened. The lack of a comprehensive national peatland map hinders effective management. Our objectives were to create a national mountain peatland map for Colombia, assess peatland
distribution, quantify degra...
De las conversaciones con parameros, guías y parqueros, surge la idea de crear la guía “Caminos y Saberes. Guía de Plantas de los senderos de la Sierra Nevada de Güicán y Cocuy”, como una herramienta de consulta que recoja tanto saberes locales como conocimiento técnico sobre las plantas, los páramos y las amenazas que lo aquejan. El libro es un pe...
Patchy global data on belowground litter decomposition dynamics limit our capacity to discern the drivers of carbon preservation and storage across inland and coastal wetlands. We performed a global, multiyear study in over 180 wetlands across 28 countries and 8 macroclimates using standardized litter as measures of “recalcitrant” (rooibos tea) and...
The intensity of human impacts on peatlands in the Latin America and the Caribbean region (LAC) varies greatly, from relatively intact peatlands that require protection, to highly degraded peatlands that require restoration, with a total peatland area of more than 63 million hectares, representing 12.9% of global peatlands. Wet peatlands are intrin...
The tropical Andes region harbors areas that are highly significant for biodiversity at both global and local scales. However, despite the severe conservation threats that this region has to confront, conservation initiatives are limited, by funding and because of the need for more information to decide which areas are priorities for conservation....
Our objective was to determine the relationship of different successional stages with the diversity, assimilation rates and net productivity of different growth forms of vascular epiphytes in a humid montane forest in Andean Colombian. Three successional stages were selected according to the site conditions. The 30 trees sampled in the three succes...
Peatlands are the most carbon-dense ecosystems on earth. In tropical mountains, peatlands are numerous and susceptible to rapid degradation and carbon loss after human disturbances. Quantifying where peatlands are located and how they are affected by land use is key in creating a baseline of carbon stocks and greenhouse gas fluxes from tropical mou...
High-elevation cushion peatlands are typical ecosystems of the Andes above 4000 m of altitude, with an important role in hydrology and global carbon sequestration. In Tropical Andean context, grazing livestock is one of the main threats to cushion peatlands, altering the vegetation and the storage carbon function. The aim of this research is to und...
The Tropical Andes region harbors highly significant and threatened biodiversity areas. However, due to its misidentification, conservation initiatives in these regions are limited and need more substantial support. Identifying Important Plant Areas (IPAs) offers a valuable methodology for establishing conservation priorities, a particularly comple...
High-elevation cushion peatlands are typical ecosystems of the Andes above 4000 m of altitude, with an important role in hydrology and global carbon sequestration. In Tropical Andean context, grazing livestock is one of the main threats to cushion peatlands, altering the vegetation and the storage carbon function. The aim of this research is to und...
Methane emitted by wetlands accounts for nearly 30% of the global methane emissions and is expected to double by 2,100. Methane fluxes from peatlands are related to m soil temperature, water table, and vegetation. Disturbances, mostly drainage, are considered to have a more limited impact on CH4 fluxes from peatlands. Here, we studied the temporal...
Flooding is a condition in which the terrestrial surface, streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands can no longer hold the discharge of water, and the excess water spreads out to the adjoining structures. Often such spreads bring ecological, environmental, economic, and societal destruction and disaster. Therefore flooding, as one of the major destructi...
Andean peatlands are important carbon reservoirs for countries in the northern Andes and have a unique diversity. Peatland plant diversity is generally related to hydrology and water chemistry, and the response of the vegetation in tropical high-elevation peatlands to changes in elevation, climate, and disturbance is poorly understood. Here, we add...
Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...
Peatlands contain a significant fraction of global soil carbon, but how these reservoirs will respond to the changing climate is still relatively unknown. A global picture of the variations in peat organic matter chemistry will aid our ability to gauge peatland soil response to climate. The goal of this research is to test the hypotheses that (a) p...
El cambio climático es un fenómeno que se ha venido abordando desde el ámbito científico a una escala global, pero también es un problema social con consecuencias ecológicas y económicas sin precedentes en la historia reciente de nuestro planeta. Esto nos invita a que además de avanzar en la medición continua de la precipitación y la temperatura, e...
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-00991-1.
Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...
The carbon balance of peatlands is predicted to shift from a sink to a source this century. However, peatland ecosystems are still omitted from the main Earth system models that are used for future climate change projections, and they are not considered in integrated assessment models that are used in impact and mitigation studies. By using evidenc...
The long-term carbon (C) and vegetation dynamics of tropical, high-Andean cushion peatlands are poorly understood. Here, we present radiocarbon-dated paleoecological records and modern microclimate data from high-elevation peatlands currently dominated by the cushion plant Distichia muscoides in the páramo (alpine tundra) of the eastern Colombian A...
Global climate and land use change are causing woody plant encroachment in arctic, alpine, and arid/semiarid ecosystems around the world, yet our understanding of the belowground impacts of this phenomenon is limited. We conducted a globally distributed field study of 13 alpine sites across 4 continents undergoing woody plant encroachment and sampl...
A new terrestrial species of Colura (Dumort.) Dumort., from high elevations in the northern tropical Andes is described. The species differs from other members of the genus in the section Oidocorys Jovet-Ast ex Grolle on its unique oversized lobule and reduced lobe, and the smooth surface of the leaf cells. An identification key is provided for nor...
Se presenta una sintesis de los temas que han abarcado cerca de 55 estudios ecologicos sobre epífitas en Colombia, se señalan unos vacios en el desarrollo conceptual y oportunidades de Investigación.
La Misión Internacional de Sabios 2019 fue convocada por el Gobierno de Colombia en el mes de febrero de 2019. Estuvo conformada por un grupo de expertos independientes y ad honorem en diferentes campos y de diferentes nacionalidades. La Misión recibió el encargo de trazar una hoja de ruta para el desarrollo de la ciencia, la tecnología y la innova...
Epiphytes thrive in the North Andean forests, where species richness and abundance are the highest in the world. However the role of epiphytes in key forest functions such as water flux regulation and carbon storage remains unknown. Basic questions like how much epiphytic biomass is in these forests are still to be answered. We studied epiphytes in...
Introduction. The purpose of this study was to analyse the variation in the vertical and spatial distribution of epiphytic bryophytes across four forests in the north-western Amazon. We sampled along the entire vertical gradient from tree base to upper canopy in order to answer these questions: Is there vertical zonation? Is there a relationship be...
Several populations of a partially submerged, robust, morphologically distinct Fossombronia were personally collected in central Mexico and several high elevation subpáramo communities in Venezuela. Comparative morphological studies of these populations with the type collections of F. peruviana, F. herzogii, F. ptychophylla, and F. australis, and a...
Recent climate change has resulted in drastic impacts on the alpine tundra “páramo” in the Colombian high Andes. However, short instrumental records and lack of high-resolution paleoenvironmental data from high elevations hinders our understanding of climate variability, its forcing mechanisms, and its influence on mountain ecology. Here we present...
Understanding the relative importance of environmental and anthropogenic factors in driving plant community structure, including relative dominance of native and non-native species, helps predict community responses to biological invasions. To assess factors influencing plant communities on San Clemente Island, USA, we conducted an islandwide veget...
Las turberas son ecosistemas de humedal acumuladores de materia orgánica con inundación permanente lo que los hace una reserva y sumidero de carbono. Las turberas ubicadas en los páramos ayudan a mantener el balance hídrico de los ecosistemas alrededor y regulan la distribución del agua usada por comunidades humanas. Actualmente, las turberas son a...
Global change in tropical canopies: increasing temperatures and the ability of the epiphytes to migrate within the same tree
Daniel Felipe Zuleta 1, Juan C. Benavides 2, , Ana Maria Benavides
1-CIB
2-EAFIT
3-Author for correspondence
Background/Question/Methods
Microclimatic conditions at forest interior in northern Andean are changing as a double...
In situ propagation of tropical bryophytes: A conservation alternative for illegal extraction of non-timber forest products in the northern Andes
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Exhibit Hall, Baltimore Convention Center
Esther Velasquez, Biodiversity, ARVI Park Nature Preserve, Medellin, Colombia
Ana M. Benavides, Biodiversity, Corporación para Investig...
Mat-forming “ground layers” of mosses and lichens often have functional impacts disproportionate to their biomass, and are responsible for sequestering one-third of the world's terrestrial carbon as they regulate water tables, cool soils and inhibit microbial decomposition. Without reliable assessment tools, the potential effects of climate and lan...
Tropical alpine peatlands are important carbon reservoirs and are a critical component of local hydrological cycles. In high elevation peatlands slow decomposition rates result from a nutrient-poor substrate resistant to decay. The responses of paramo peatland ecosystems to increased nutrient additions and physical disturbance due to agricultural a...
Las epífitas vasculares son un importante componente de los bosques tropicales; sin embargo, la dinámica del crecimiento de estas plantas y su rol en el ciclo local del carbono son poco entendidos. Este desconocimiento ha sido atribuido a la diversidad de especies y formas de vida que presentan, y a los límites logísticos asociados con su monitoreo...
Peatlands, with organic soils, are usually dominated by one or a few species. Above and belowground ecological processes are regulated by the characteristics of the dominant species in the peat. Understanding how these species relate to climatic or water chemistry gradients will help to predict the fate of those ecosystems under current climate cha...
Las epífitas vasculares son un importante componente de los bosques tropicales. Sin embargo, la dinámica del crecimiento de estas plantas y su rol en el ciclo local del carbono de los bosques son poco entendidos debido a la diversidad de especies y formas de vida, y a los límites logísticos asociados con su monitoreo en el dosel (Barker & Pinard, 2...
The tropical Andes store and regulate water outflow that serves nearly 60 million people. Most of the water is for un-managed agricultural irrigation. In this work I report how the drainage of peatlands has adversely affected the development of plant communities and recent carbon accumulation in a páramo massif at 2500 to 3800 m altitude in the nor...
[1] Extensive cushions of Distichia muscoides found at high elevations in the Andes form deep deposits of peat and function as peatland. The location of Distichia peatlands at the highest elevations makes them susceptible to the effects of global change including global warming. Accumulation rates of organic matter are the key function of peatland...
Peatlands store nearly one third of the soil global carbon, and approximately 10% of the world's drinkable water on only 3% of the land surface. Peatlands store large amounts of carbon from the organic matter due to the reduced decomposition rates in the soil allowing the accumulation of new plant growth each year. Rising temperatures and increasin...
Cloud forests are one of the most diverse and yet one of the most endangered ecosystems in the tropics. Epiphytic bryophytes are extremely diverse and abundant in this ecosystem where the palms are a dominant element. Slash and burn agriculture techniques usually do not cut the palms and they remain as isolated individuals in the middle of artifici...
Plant rarity is considered a useful predictor of the extinction risk of species. However, apparent rarity can emerge from incomplete data sets or incorrect sampling. Epiphyllous bryophytes are a poorly collected and taxonomically complicated group, with incompletely known distribution patterns. In this paper we explore the diversity patterns and me...
The northern Andean Fossombronia peruviana Gottsche & Hampe is the only Latin American taxon included by Schuster in the genus Austrofossombronia R. M. Schust. This segregate was differentiated from Fossombronia by large plant size, elongate rather than spheroidal capsules, capsule walls 3 or more cell layers in thickness, and its unique wetland ha...
Páramos are treeless, high elevation alpine communities of the equatorial Andean cordillera. They are found in the more humid northern portion of the Andes, occurring from northern Peru through Ecuador, Colombia, and western Venezuela,
with northernmost extensions into the high mountains of northern Panama and southern Costa Rica. The most extensiv...
North American peatlands harvested for horticultural purposes remain dysfunctional when
exploitation ceases, and need to be restored or reclaimed (Rochefort et al., 2003). The
“Sphagnum moss transfer” technique has been developed for large scale restoration of cutover
bogs, with the long term objective of bringing back these ecosystems to a func...
Bryophytes constitute important components of many ecosystems. However, the methods used to measure their dominance have remained unchanged during the last 25 years. Herein we compare accuracy, efficiency and objectivity among three methods used to estimate bryophyte cover: Braun-Blanquet cover classes, grid percentage and digital image processing....
The first bryophyte survey results from Colombian Amazonia are presented. Bryophyte species, differentiated into mosses and liverworts, and further into four life-form classes, were sampled in 0.1-ha plots. These plots were distributed over four landscape units in the middle Caquetá area: floodplains, swamps, terra firme forests and white-sand area...
Two epiphyllous Lejeuneaceae, Cololejeunea surinamensis and Drepanolejeunea polyrhiza, previously known from Amazonian Brazil, are recorded for the first time in Colombia. They were found as epiphylls on understory shrubs in the middle Caquetá area in Colombian Amazonia. Cololejeunea surinamensis was found in the Tierra Firme forests and D. polyrhi...
We investigated patterns of bryophyte species richness and composition in two forest types of Colombian Amazonia, non-flooded tierra firme forest and floodplain forest of the Caquetá River. A total of 109 bryophyte species were recorded from 14 0.2 ha plots. Bryophyte life forms and habitats were analyzed, including the canopy and epiphylls. Bryoph...
The discovery of Bromeliophila helenae Gradst. (Marchantiophyta, Lejeuneaceae) in the northern Andes of Colombia. We report the discovery in Colombia of the rare liverwort Bromeliophila helenae Gradst., a species previously known from only two localities, one in the Guayana Highland of Venezuela and the other in the Lesser Antilles (Dominica). The...
