Victor L. Barradas

Victor L. Barradas
National Autonomous University of Mexico | UNAM · Department of Functional Ecology

PhD

About

148
Publications
88,573
Reads
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2,263
Citations
Introduction
The research that I carry out is about Plant-Atmosphere Interaction, which plays an important role in both Microclimatology and Functional Ecology, and not only seeks to understand the effect of environmental factors in primary and secondary production or the distribution and abundance of plants from the functional point of view, but it also analyzes the impacts in the environment due to different ecosystem disturbances by land use change.
Additional affiliations
January 1984 - present
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Position
  • Senior Researcher
Education
December 1992 - December 1994
University of Nottingham-Horticulture Research International
Field of study
  • Plant physiology and environmental sciences
January 1987 - August 1989
January 1977 - December 1981
University of Veracruz
Field of study
  • Atmospheric sciences

Publications

Publications (148)
Article
Full-text available
Urban areas present different climates from those of their rural surroundings. Energy balance and especially energy storage play important roles in the resulting climate since more than 50% of the net radiation is absorbed in densely urbanized areas. A simple model of energy storage in the urban fabric is presented, fed with the air temperature of...
Article
Full-text available
Coffee is one of the most traded crops worldwide. In the state of Veracruz, Mexico, coffee has been a strategic crop due to its economic, social, environmental, and cultural characteristics that differentiate it from other crops, contributing to the economy of almost 86,000 producers. Several studies have shown that climate is the main cause of the...
Cover Page
Full-text available
This is a recognition given by the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities for my performance as Associate Editor.
Article
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The water balance is the volume of water flowing through the hydrological cycle, and one of its main components is fog. Fog is considered a type of low-lying cloud and is heavily influenced by water bodies, topography, and wind conditions. Fog incorporates water from the atmosphere to the terrestrial surface and for some ecosystems (e.g., cloud for...
Article
Full-text available
The urban heat island (UHI) is mostly due to urbanization. This phenomenon in concert with the high temperatures caused by global climate change may profoundly affect human thermal comfort, which can influence human productivity and morbidity especially in spring/summer period. The main objective of this investigation was to determine changes in de...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The drastic change in land use in cities alters the energy balance, giving rise to the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. One of these alterations is the radical change in the energy that is stored in the urban fabric (QS) since it can dispose of up to 50% of the net radiation (QN) in densely populated areas. A thermal model of energy stored in th...
Article
Full-text available
Urban trees play a key role in mitigating urban heat by cooling the local environment. However, the cooling benefit that trees can provide is influenced by differences in species traits and site-specific environmental conditions. Fifteen dominant urban tree species in parks from Mexico City were selected considering physiological traits (i.e., tran...
Preprint
Full-text available
The urban heat island (UHI) is mostly due to urbanization. This phenomenon in concert with the high temperatures caused by global climate change may profoundly affect human thermal comfort, which can influence human productivity and morbidity especially in spring/summer period. The main objective of this investigation was to determine changes in de...
Article
The urban heat island (UHI) is a phenomenon that appears in cities due to the alteration of the energy balance caused by the drastic land use change. A factor that can contribute to its development is the energy generated by the city inhabitants, or the anthropogenic heat flux (QF). Therefore, the determination of this component can improve the pre...
Article
Negative impacts of climate change are expected in the production of Coffea arabica L. one of the most commercialized tropical agroproducts in the world. However, most studies work with global circulation models, being of little use in making decisions on the scale of farm management. Given this, the objective of this study was to identify the suit...
Cover Page
Full-text available
Fragment of the 2022 calendar of the Institute of Ecology, UNAM, corresponding to the month of May, addressing the plant-atmosphere interaction in an urban environment. It was called “Pocket Parks, a custom design for Mexico City”. The illustration is by Sofía Soto Lemus. During the transpiration of the plants, the water turns into vapor inside the...
Article
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Urban forests play an important role in regulating urban climate while providing multiple environmental services. These forests, however, are threatened by changes in climate, as plants are exposed not only to global climate change but also to urban climate, having an impact on physiological functions. Here, we selected two physiological variables...
Article
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Phenology has been useful to better understand the climate vegetation relationship, and it is considered an indicator of climate change impact. Phenological data have been generated through multiple remote sensing techniques and ground-based observations through professional or citizen science. The combination of both techniques is known as cross-s...
Article
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Aim Correlative species distribution models (SDMs) are among the most frequently used tools for conservation planning under climate and land use changes. Conservation‐focused climate change studies are often conducted on a national or local level and can use different sources of occurrence records (e.g., local databases, national biodiversity monit...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This research is a general reflection of the possible transmission not only of COVID-19 but of any influenza disease depending on environmental parameters such as solar radiation, air humidity and air temperature (vapor pressure deficit), evoking the Penman-Monteith model regarding the evaporation of the water that constitutes the small water dropl...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The urban heat island (UHI) is mostly due to urbanization and it is considered as a nocturnal phenomenon, but it also appears during the day in Mexico City. The UHI in concert with the high temperatures caused by global climate change (CC) may profoundly affect human thermal comfort, which can influence human productivity and morbidity in the sprin...
Article
Full-text available
Hemileia vastatrix, the fungus that causes the most devastating disease of Coffea arabica L. (coffee rust), could increase its altitude distribution due to climate change, causing adverse effects. Therefore, realized a prospecting of the effect of climate change on the incidence of H. vastatrix. This study was conducted out taking data from the cof...
Cover Page
Published cite by Spanish newspaper "El País" is part of a reflection paper about a Mexico City Governamental project and how it is not viable and not sustainable. However is just not published officially yet. Find the part of my contribution in INFRAESTRUCTURA VERDE with my collegue Dr. Víctor L. Barradas
Article
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A new methodology is presented to design synthetic arboreal communities, with emphasis on forest management in deforested regions. This methodology is based on the potential distribution of native tree species of Mexico in the lower part of the Usumacinta river basin in southeastern Mexico. The potential distributions of native species were obtaine...
Article
Urban trees reduce CO2 and pollutants that represent a risk for human health in cities. In this work, we assessed the potential effect of heavy metals and environmental variables on the CO2 assimilation (A) and the stomatal conductace (gS) of Ligustrum lucidum, a common urban tree in Mexico City. We compared two sites with contrasting pollution lev...
Chapter
Full-text available
Water is one of the fundamental natural resources and is one of the four basic resources on which development is based, along with air, land and energy. The state of Veracruz enjoys abundant water availability, but this can be reversed in a few years due to the population increase, its geographic dispersion, the deterioration of the sources of supp...
Article
Full-text available
A new methodology is presented to design synthetic arboreal communities, with emphasis on forest management in deforested regions. This methodology is based on the potential distribution of native tree species of Mexico in the lower part of the Usumacinta river basin in southeastern Mexico. The potential distributions of native species were obtaine...
Article
Climate change will modify the production and distribution of plant species, which is why implementing adaptation plans to minimize its effects, as well as to reduce impacts on food security, should be considered. This study assessed the variation of maize (Zea mayz L.) yields under rainfed conditions under climate change scenarios, for the spring-...
Article
Full-text available
Climate change will modify the production and distribution of plant species, which is why implementing adaptation plans to minimize its effects, as well as to reduce impacts on food security, should be considered. This study assessed the variation of maize (Zea mayz L.) yields under rainfed conditions under climate change scenarios, for the spring-...
Article
Full-text available
RESUMEN: Existe la percepción de que el clima está cambiando en todo el mundo, pero pocas veces se analiza cómo (y cuánto) es ese cambio. En esta nota se presentan avances del análisis del clima para Xalapa y Coatepec. Se realizó una caracterización del clima y se determina-ron las tendencias de temperatura y precipita-ción considerando cómo ha cam...
Article
Full-text available
Scientists do not know precisely how severe will be the impact of climate change on species. Evidence suggests that for some species, their future distributions might be jeopardized by local extinctions and drought-induced tree mortality. Thus, we require models capable of estimating drought tolerance across many species. We can approach this goal...
Article
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http://rdcu.be/uhpb Few studies have focused on analyzing the effect of native inoculated ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal strains on seedlings under field conditions in temperate forests. However, it is crucial to verify that the positive effects of ECM under nursery conditions also occur in the field, favoring their performance. We evaluated the shor...
Article
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En 2009 el Servicio Forestal de los Estados Unidos de América informó sobre la muerte de más de 100 millones de árboles en el estado de California. Pero no se trataba solo de un problema de ese país: en 2016 el investigador Craig D. Allen, del Servicio Geológico de los Estados Unidos, publicó un informe sobre la muerte masiva de arboles en bosques...
Poster
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La enorme oferta de información disponible en internet es un reto para colocar información científica fiable y atractiva para un público diverso cuyos perfiles es difícil determinar. Desde 2012 el Instituto de Ecología de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México ha fortalecido su presencia en la internet por medio de una fan page de Facebook y un...
Article
Ecological restoration in tropical dry forests urgently needs to incorporate experimental evidence to increase effectiveness. The main barriers for tree establishment are adverse microenvironmental conditions and competition with exotic grasses. Therefore, management should address such barriers in order to enhance tree performance. We evaluated th...
Article
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The tropical dry deciduous forest (TDF) of the semi-arid region of Bajio in Mexico is dominated by successional communities, in which Lysiloma microphyllum is irregularly distributed, however the environmental factors influencing its establishment have been poorly studied. We conducted field experiments to isolate the impact of three factors on the...
Article
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Climate and vegetation coexist in a dynamic equilibrium. However, lack of vegetation can cause local and regional climate changes. Grown-shade coffee agroecosystem provides resources, environmental services and socio-economic benefits. We found that coffee production has decreased but its economical value has increased; however, the socio-economic...
Article
Full-text available
Background. The urban area continues growing, and in most cases, the planning of green areas does not include in the species selection their physiological characteristics, which determine plant survival. Question/Hypothesis. Stomatal conductance (gS) is a key variable that provides information on how the environment affects a plant physiology. Ther...
Chapter
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El cambio climático es un fenómeno que modificará la producción y la distribución de las especies vegetales en una región; de no realizarse planes de mitigación y/o adaptación, la seguridad alimentaria de México podría verse en riesgo, por lo que es importante contrarrestar sus efectos mediante la puesta en acción de planes dirigidos a zonas agríco...
Article
Full-text available
Stomatal conductance is considered as a key plant response because it plays an important role in plant physiology by controlling transpiration (water status) and CO2 assimilation, regulating plant productivity. As stomatal conductance is affected by micro-environmental and physiological variables, changes in an altitudinal gradient will have a dire...
Article
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p> Aim of the study : The objective of this work is to compare tree diversity and richness among one grown-shade coffee plantation (CAE) and two sites of montane cloud forests, one preserved (MCF1) and other perturbed (MCF2). We also develop an analysis of the importance of coffee plantations as a refuge of tree species, holding a potential role fo...
Article
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In order to determine if artificially collected water fog in the mountainous located in central the region of Veracruz state is suitable for human consumption; a preliminary sampling was made, from January to March (2010), the period with more fog frequency. The objective was to analyze the physical, chemical and biological aspects concerning water...
Article
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Con el fin de determinar si el agua recolectada artificialmente de la niebla en la zona central montañosa del Estado de Veracruz es apta para el consumo humano, se realizó un muestreo preliminar de enero a marzo del año 2010, periodo de mayor frecuencia de nieblas, para analizar sus aspectos físicos, químicos y biológicos y evaluar su calidad. Se e...
Article
Full-text available
The global, regional and local hydrological cycle is strongly linked to vegetation distribution. The hydrological cycle is composed by precipitation, infiltration, runoff, transpiration and evaporation. Evaporation is influenced by high temperatures, high winds and low relative humidity. This work is focused on the study of evapotranspiration (ET)...
Article
Full-text available
The urban heat island (UHI) is mainly a nocturnal phenomenon but it also appears during the day in Mexico City. This UHI may affect the human thermal comfort which can influence human productivity and morbidity in the spring/summer period. A simple phenomenological model based on the energy balance was developed to generate theoretical support of t...
Article
Full-text available
Climate change effects are expected to be more severe for some segments of society than others. In Mexico, climate variability associated with climate change has important socio-economic and environmental impacts. From the central mountainous region of eastern Veracruz, Mexico, we analyzed data of total annual precipitation and mean annual temperat...
Article
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El agroecosistema cafetalero bajo sombra ha contribuido a mitigar la pérdida de los servicios ambientales que provee el bosque mesófilo en la región central montañosa de Veracruz. Esto se debe en gran medida a que es un cultivo amigable con dicho ecosistema forestal. Sin embargo, a pesar de los múltiples servicios que proporciona, la cafeticultura...
Article
Full-text available
The shade-grown coffee agroecosystem has contributed to mitigate the loss of ecosystem services provided by the tropical cloud forest in the mountainous central region of Veracruz. This is largely due to the fact that this cultivation type is friendly with that forest ecosystem. Although, despite the multiple services that this cultivation provides...
Article
Full-text available
The shade-grown coffee agroecosystem has contributed to mitigate the loss of ecosystem services provided by the tropical cloud forest in the mountainous central region of Veracruz. This is largely due to the fact that this cultivation type is friendly with that forest ecosystem. Although, despite the multiple services that this cultivation provides...
Article
Full-text available
We define vulnerability here as the extent to which climate change may damage or harm a system, depending not only on a system’s sensitivity, but also on its ability to adapt to new climatic conditions. Current climate change has already affected the Earth’s biodiversity, and the rate of change is likely to accelerate in the future. It is expected...
Article
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Una reflexión sobre el blanquear techos para mitigar el cambio climático y sobre todo el urbano, contra azoteas verdes. Advertencia: Oikos= es una revista de divulgación del Instituto de Ecología, UNAM. No es Oikos.
Article
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Ecophysiological vulnerability can be understood as the degree of susceptibility or inability of an organism to adapt their physiological functions to ecological and environmental changes. Changes in water availability and water stress are critical for species, which may respond differentially to different precipitation events. We analyzed the resp...
Article
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The association between the growth and water-use efficiency in three populations of C. odorata in Veracruz Mexico (La Antigua, Misantla and Catemaco) from two agroforestry system sites was studied, one in association with corn and another with pipián. TRP (transpiration), g s (stomatal conductivity), CO 2 A (CO 2 assimilation), WUE (water use effic...
Article
Full-text available
Mulches increase the plant survival, promoting growth when reforesting tropical dry areas, and make more efficient economic resources. Two objectives were raised: (1) to determine in two years the efficiency in reforestation and (2) to perform an analysis of the economic cost of using mulches in the reforestation and the generation of the seedlings...
Article
Mulches increase the plant survival, promoting growth when reforesting tropical dry areas, and make more efficient economic resources. Two objectives were raised: (1) to determine in two years the efficiency in reforestation and (2) to perform an analysis of the economic cost of using mulches in the reforestation and the generation of the seedlings...
Article
Full-text available
Mulches increase the plant survival, promoting growth when reforesting tropical dry areas, and make more efficient economic resources. Two objectives were raised: (1) to determine in two years the efficiency in reforestation and (2) to perform an analysis of the economic cost of using mulches in the reforestation and the generation of the seedlings...
Article
Full-text available
The water and energy fluxes of a shaded coffee plantation in the lower montane cloud forest (LMCF) zone of central Veracruz, Mexico, were measured over a two-year period (September 2006–August 2008) using the eddy covariance method. Complementary measurements of throughfall and stemflow were made to study rainfall interception. The sum of the obser...
Article
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Esta es una reflexión sobre la isla de calor urbana y su posible mitigación por vegetación urbana principalmente vegetación arbórea. Advertencia: Oikos= es una publicación de divulgación del Instituto de Ecología, UNAM. No es Oikos.
Chapter
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El agua es Ia sustancia mas abundante en Ia biosfera y el unico compuesto que se encuentra en Ia naturaleza en los estados sólido, líquido y gaseoso. Es el principal constituyente de las plantas y participa en todos sus procesos fisiológicos. Su contenido varía entre plantas y sus diferentes partes, siendo mayor en las plantas herbáceas, y disminuy...
Article
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The ectothermic nature of reptiles makes them especially sensitive to global warming. Although climate change and its implications are a frequent topic of detailed studies, most of these studies are carried out without making a distinction between populations. Here we present the first study of an Aspidoscelis species that evaluates the effects of...
Article
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Hardwood and softwood cuttings of Buddleja cordata HBK, Dodonaea viscosa Jacq and Senecio praecox D.C. were tested to know their ability to form adventitious roots. Cuttings were prepared in 2 different seasons (wet and dry) and treated with different microclimatic conditions and auxin concentrations (IBA and NAA). Hardwood and softwood cuttings of...
Article
Full-text available
Hail formation has caused important losses, up to 100% of fruit yield in avocado (Persea americana) orchards of the state of Michoacán, México. Hail avoidance with currently utilized electronic technology, may generate changes in this climatic factor. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the spatial variability of rainfall due to an anti-hail syst...
Article
Full-text available
Hardwood and softwood cuttings of Buddleja cordata HBK, Dodonaea viscosa Jacq and Senecio praecox D.C. were tested to know their ability to form adventitious roots. Cuttings were prepared in 2 different seasons (wet and dry) and treated with different microclimatic conditions and auxin concentrations (IBA and NAA). Hardwood and softwood cuttings of...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The urban heat island (UHI) is actually an intense phenomena in Mexico City. It was found in 1979 that the intensity of the UHI (TU-R) was 2 to 3 °C occurring mainly at nighttime, and in November 1981, the intensity between the urban area (Plateros) was up to 8 °C respect to the rural area (Texcoco) and at that time the minimum TU-R was 6 °C. The w...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Urbanization leads to a drastic environment change caused primarily by land use change. The objective of this research was to determine the intensity and the fluctuation of the UHI in a tropical high-altitude city using the daily cooling/warming gradient (ΔT/Δt) for each of the analyzed stations, and setting the temperature contrasts between. The U...
Article
Full-text available
Nitrogen fertilizer is the main nutrient that is used in the avocado orchards of Micho-acán, México. Fertilization applied in July and October agrees with the rainy season so that losses of nitrogen (N) may increase and thereby probably decrease the efficiency of its use, and a likely contribution to environment pollution. Therefore, two systems of...
Article
Full-text available
Nitrogen fertilizer is the main nutrient that is used in the avocado orchards of Michoacan, Mexico. Fertilization applied in July and October agrees with the rainy season so that losses of nitrogen (N) may increase and thereby probably decrease the efficiency of its use, and a likely contribution to environment pollution. Therefore, two systems of...
Article
Full-text available
This work examines Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS) observed during the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME), using data of deployed instruments in Northwest Mexico like weather radar, atmospheric soundings and weather satellite. Satellite infrared images were used to define these meteorological phenomena during July-August 2004 period on the...