Andean land use and biodiversity: Humanized landscapes in a time of change
18 Sep 2009-Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden (Missouri Botanical Garden)-Vol. 96, Iss: 3, pp 492-507
TL;DR: A conceptual model is proposed that implies that the continued persistence of native species may depend as much on the shifting of Andean landscape mosaics as on species characteristics themselves.
Abstract: Some landscapes cannot be understood without references to the kinds, degrees, and history of human-caused modifications to the Earth's surface. The tropical latitudes of the Andes represent one such place, with agricultural land-use systems appearing in the Early Holocene. Current land use includes both intensive and extensive grazing and crop- or tree-based agricultural systems found across virtually the entire range of possible elevations and humidity regimes. Biodiversity found in or adjacent to such humanized landscapes will have been altered in abundance, composition, and distribution in relation to the resiliency of the native species to harvest, land cover modifications, and other deliberate or inadvertent human land uses. In addition, the geometries of land cover, resulting from differences among the shapes, sizes, connectivities, and physical structures of the patches, corridors, and matrices that compose landscape mosaics, will constrain biodiversity, often in predictable ways. This article proposes a conceptual model that implies that the continued persistence of native species may depend as much on the shifting of Andean landscape mosaics as on species characteristics themselves. Furthermore, mountains such as the Andes display long gradients of environmental conditions that alter in relation to latitude, soil moisture, aspect, and elevation. Global environmental change will shift these, especially temperature and humidity regimes along elevational gradients, causing changes outside the historical range of variation for some species. Both land-use systems and conservation efforts will need to respond spatially to these shifts in the future, at both landscape and regional scales.
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TL;DR: This work focuses on four major phases that witnessed broad anthropogenic alterations to biodiversity—the Late Pleistocene global human expansion, the Neolithic spread of agriculture, the era of island colonization, and the emergence of early urbanized societies and commercial networks.
Abstract: The exhibition of increasingly intensive and complex niche construction behaviors through time is a key feature of human evolution, culminating in the advanced capacity for ecosystem engineering exhibited by Homo sapiens. A crucial outcome of such behaviors has been the dramatic reshaping of the global biosphere, a transformation whose early origins are increasingly apparent from cumulative archaeological and paleoecological datasets. Such data suggest that, by the Late Pleistocene, humans had begun to engage in activities that have led to alterations in the distributions of a vast array of species across most, if not all, taxonomic groups. Changes to biodiversity have included extinctions, extirpations, and shifts in species composition, diversity, and community structure. We outline key examples of these changes, highlighting findings from the study of new datasets, like ancient DNA (aDNA), stable isotopes, and microfossils, as well as the application of new statistical and computational methods to datasets that have accumulated significantly in recent decades. We focus on four major phases that witnessed broad anthropogenic alterations to biodiversity—the Late Pleistocene global human expansion, the Neolithic spread of agriculture, the era of island colonization, and the emergence of early urbanized societies and commercial networks. Archaeological evidence documents millennia of anthropogenic transformations that have created novel ecosystems around the world. This record has implications for ecological and evolutionary research, conservation strategies, and the maintenance of ecosystem services, pointing to a significant need for broader cross-disciplinary engagement between archaeology and the biological and environmental sciences.
516 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the issues through an interdisciplinary and linked evaluation of hydrological change and livelihood vulnerability in the Yanamarey watershed in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru.
Abstract: Glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, are undergoing rapid retreat, in large part due to climate change. These changes are significantly altering water availability in the region and pose critical risks to local populations that are highly dependent on these resources for livelihoods. We examine these issues through an interdisciplinary and linked evaluation of hydrological change and livelihood vulnerability in the Yanamarey watershed. Physical observations of the Yanamarey glacier show acceleration in frontal retreat at a rate of 8 m decade −1 since 1970, accompanied by total volume loss on the order of 0.022 km 3 . Hydrological and hydrochemical analyses document a possible transformation of stream flow over the past decade as the seasonal storage capacity of the glacier has degraded. Recent stream discharge measurements from the proglacial lake below the glacier are more coincident with the highly variable seasonal precipitation than they were during the 1998-1999 hydrological year. Local household perceptions of glacier recession and seasonal hydrological variability agree with this trend, which is increasing human vulnerability in the watershed. Household case-study survey results demonstrate that
176 citations
Cites background from "Andean land use and biodiversity: H..."
...Glacial melt water is critical to the diverse ecosystems of the region and supports unique landscape mosaics that are the result of millennia of complex biophysical, ecological and human interaction (Young 2009)....
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01 Dec 2017
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize results from long-term transdisciplinary research with new findings from two glacierized Peruvian watersheds to develop and apply a multi-level conceptual framework focused on the coupled biophysical and social determinants of water access and hydro-social risks in these settings.
Abstract: Accelerating glacier recession in tropical highlands and in the Peruvian Andes specifically is a manifestation of global climate change that is influencing the hydrologic cycle and impacting water resources across a range of socio-environmental systems. Despite predictions regarding the negative effects of long-term glacier decline on water availability, many uncertainties remain regarding the timing and variability of hydrologic changes and their impacts. To improve context-specific understandings of the effects of climate change and glacial melt on water resources in the tropical Andes, this article synthesizes results from long-term transdisciplinary research with new findings from two glacierized Peruvian watersheds to develop and apply a multi-level conceptual framework focused on the coupled biophysical and social determinants of water access and hydro-social risks in these settings. The framework identifies several interacting variables—hydrologic transformation, land cover change, perceptions of water availability, water use and infrastructure in local and regional economies, and water rights and governance—to broadly assess how glacier change is embedded with social risks and vulnerability across diverse water uses and sectors. The primary focus is on the Santa River watershed draining the Cordillera Blanca to the Pacific. Additional analysis of hydrologic change and water access in the geographically distinct Shullcas River watershed draining the Huaytapallana massif towards the city of Huancayo further illuminates the heterogeneous character of hydrologic risk and vulnerability in the Andes.
88 citations
Cites background from "Andean land use and biodiversity: H..."
...This verticality and diversity contribute to the region's rich natural resource endowments and long history of complex coupled human-environment dynamics (Young, 2009)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss some of the natural factors, as well as anthropogenic influences, that may prevent cloud forest tree species from expanding their ranges to higher elevations.
Abstract: The upper elevational range edges of most tropical cloud forest tree species and hence the ‘treeline’ are thought to be determined primarily by temperatures. For this reason, the treeline ecotone between cloud forests and the overlying grasslands is generally predicted to shift upslope as species migrate to higher elevations in response to global warming. Here, we propose that other factors are preventing tropical trees from shifting or expanding their ranges to include high elevation areas currently under grassland, resulting in stationary treelines despite rising mean temperatures. The inability of cloud forest species to invade the grasslands, a phenomenon which we refer to as the ‘grass ceiling’ effect, poses a major threat to tropical biodiversity as it will greatly increase risk of extinctions and biotic attrition in diverse tropical cloud forests. In this review, we discuss some of the natural factors, as well as anthropogenic influences, that may prevent cloud forest tree species from expanding their ranges to higher elevations. In the absence of human disturbances, tropical treelines have historically shifted up- and down-slope with changes in temperature. Over time, increased human activity has limited forests to lower elevations (i.e. has depressed treelines), and often broken the equilibrium between species range limits and climate. Yet even in areas where anthropogenic influences are halted, cloud forests have not expanded to higher elevations. Despite the critical importance of understanding the distributional responses of tropical species to climate change, few studies have addressed the factors that influence treeline location and dynamics, severely hindering our ability to predict the fate of these diverse and important ecosystems.
79 citations
Cites background from "Andean land use and biodiversity: H..."
...In addition to livestock activities, clearing of tropical cloud forests to expand agricultural areas and the cultivation of crops in the high elevation grasslands could further stabilize or even lower treeline elevations (Young 2009)....
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...Probably the most prevalent activity around tropical treelines is the grazing of livestock within alpine grasslands (Ellenberg 1979, Young 2009)....
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...Past and ongoing human disturbances have likely reduced the occurrence of tropical forest at high elevations and artifically lowered, or ‘depressed’, the elevation at which many tropical treelines occur (Ellenberg 1979, Young 2009)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how agriculture use and disturb the provision of key ecosystem services (ES) in the high Andean Puna region, and propose a set of technologies, practices and policies to preserve (or restore) these key ES: long fallowing, soil amendments, conservation tillage, rotational grazing, grassland ecological restoration.
79 citations
References
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TL;DR: If the surplus population of the source is large and the per capita deficit in the sink is small, only a small fraction of the total population will occur in areas where local reproduction is sufficient to compensate for local mortality, and the realized niche may be larger than the fundamental niche.
Abstract: Animal and plant populations often occupy a variety of local areas and may experience different local birth and death rates in different areas. When this occurs, reproductive surpluses from productive source habitats may maintain populations in sink habitats, where local reproductive success fails to keep pace with local mortality. For animals with active habitat selection, an equilibrium with both source and sink habitats occupied can be both ecologically and evolutionarily stable. If the surplus population of the source is large and the per capita deficit in the sink is small, only a small fraction of the total population will occur in areas where local reproduction is sufficient to compensate for local mortality. In this sense, the realized niche may be larger than the fundamental niche. Consequently, the particular species assemblage occupying any local study site may consist of a mixture of source and sink populations and may be as much or more influenced by the type and proximity of other habitats a...
5,014 citations
Catholic University of Leuven1, Clark University2, University of Ibadan3, University of Wisconsin-Madison4, McGill University5, National Autonomous University of Mexico6, International Institute of Minnesota7, Stockholm University8, Centre for Development Studies9, University College London10, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement11, Chinese Academy of Sciences12, Indiana University13, Jawaharlal Nehru University14, Duke University15, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences16, University of Washington17, University of the Witwatersrand18
TL;DR: In this article, the authors track some of the major myths on driving forces of land cover change and propose alternative pathways of change that are better supported by case study evidence, concluding that neither population nor poverty alone constitute the sole and major underlying causes of land-cover change worldwide.
Abstract: Common understanding of the causes of land-use and land-cover change is dominated by simplifications which, in turn, underlie many environment-development policies. This article tracks some of the major myths on driving forces of land-cover change and proposes alternative pathways of change that are better supported by case study evidence. Cases reviewed support the conclusion that neither population nor poverty alone constitute the sole and major underlying causes of land-cover change worldwide. Rather, peoples’ responses to economic opportunities, as mediated by institutional factors, drive land-cover changes. Opportunities and
3,330 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1995TL;DR: In this paper, an up-to-date synthesis explores the ecology of heterogeneous land areas, where natural processes and human activities spatially interact, to produce an ever changing mosaic.
Abstract: Animals, plants, water, wind, materials and people flow at different rates, according to spatial patterns common to almost all landscapes and regions. This up-to-date synthesis explores the ecology of heterogeneous land areas, where natural processes and human activities spatially interact, to produce an ever changing mosaic. The subject has great relevance to today's society, and this book reflects the breadth of its importance; there are many ideas and applications for planning, conservation, design, management, sustainability and policy. Spatial solutions are provided for society's land-use objectives. An appealing book, with a highly-readable text on this major emerging field. Students and professionals alike will be drawn by the attractive and informative illustrations, the conceptual synthesis, the wide international perspective and the range of topics and research covered.
3,248 citations
"Andean land use and biodiversity: H..." refers background in this paper
...It begins with an overview of how the Earth’s surface can be evaluated in terms of landscape mosaics (Forman, 1995), especially in mountainous regions, taking examples from other places in the world when the relevant studies have yet 1 Department of Geography and the Environment, University of…...
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TL;DR: The three primay attributes of biodiversity recognized by Jerry Franklin are expanded into a nested hierarcby that incorporates ele- ments of each attribute at four levels of organization: re- gional landscape, community-ecosystem, population- species, andgenetic.
Abstract: Biodiversity is presently a minor consideration in environmental policy. It has been regarded as too broad and vague a concept to be applied to real-world regulatoy and managernentproblems. This problem can be corrected ifbio- diversity is recognized as an end in itsea and if measurable indicators can be selected to assess the status of biodiversity over time. Biodiversity, as presently understood, encom- passes multiple levels of biological organization. In thispa- per, I expand the three primay attributes of biodiversity recognized by Jerry Franklin - composition, structure, and function - into a nested hierarcby that incorporates ele- ments of each attribute at four levels of organization: re- gional landscape, community-ecosystem, population- species, andgenetic. Indicators of each attribute in terrestrial ecosystems, at the four levels of organization, are identified for environmental monitoring purposes. Projects to monitor biodiversity will benefit from a direct linkage to long-term ecological research and a commitment to test hypotheses relevant to biodiversity conservation. A general guideline is to proceed from the top down, beginning with a coarse-scale invent0 y of landscape pattern, vegetation, habitat structure, and species distributions, then overlaying data on stress lev- els to identiD biologically significant areas at high risk of impoverishment. Intensive research and monitoring can be directed to high-risk ecosystems and elements of biodiversity, while less intensive monitoring is directed to the total land- scape (or samples thereon. In any monitoringprogram, par- ticular attention should be paid to specifying the questions that monitoring is intended to answer and validating the relationships between indicators and the components of bio- diversity they represent
2,937 citations
"Andean land use and biodiversity: H..." refers background in this paper
...This multiscalar quintessence results from the fact that biodiversity (biological diversity) includes not only species but the populations and genetic systems that underlie those species, in addition to multispecies assemblages, communities, and ecosystems (Noss, 1990; Franklin, 1993)....
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TL;DR: Results indicate South Asia and Southern Africa as two regions that, without sufficient adaptation measures, will likely suffer negative impacts on several crops that are important to large food-insecure human populations.
Abstract: Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models. Results indicate South Asia and Southern Africa as two regions that, without sufficient adaptation measures, will likely suffer negative impacts on several crops that are important to large food-insecure human populations. We also find that uncertainties vary widely by crop, and therefore priorities will depend on the risk attitudes of investment institutions.
2,820 citations
"Andean land use and biodiversity: H..." refers background in this paper
...Morton (2007) worried that complex subsistence agriculture in general is not sufficiently studied in relation to climate change, and future influences on pasture species and on crops other than the major commercial species have not been research foci (Tubiello et al., 2007; Lobell et al., 2008)....
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