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Item type:Publication, Secondary forests in Peru: differential provision of ecosystem services compared to other post-deforestation forest transitions(Resilience Alliance, 2022-08-01)While tropical forests are undergoing rapid transformation as a result of direct human impacts, many deforested areas are reverting to forest through natural or human-assisted regeneration. This situation provides a window of opportunity to implement forest management strategies to achieve environmental objectives while promoting social development and contributing to local livelihoods. Successful forest management policy, however, depends on how well we can appraise environmental consequences as well as on the value of ecosystem services that these regrowing forests provide. Here, we review the published literature to synthesize the ecosystem services provided by three types of forest transitions: naturally-regenerated secondary forests, agroforestry systems, and tree plantations, in the coastal, Andean, and Amazonian regions of Peru. We then discuss the potential of these regrowing forests as nature-based solutions that can help in the adoption of policies that promote their sustainable use and conservation. Our literature analysis reveals that forest transitions provide significant services in offsetting carbon emissions, providing habitats for biodiversity, and regulating hydrological services. However, the amount and importance of ecosystem services vary depending on the forest transition type. Secondary forests offer multiple services, representing a low-cost, immediate, and highly effective strategy in mitigating the climate and biodiversity crises and ultimately providing vital ecosystem services to society, such as water provision. In contrast, exotic tree plantations have negative effects on water regulation services. We highlight the potential of secondary forests for land management that supports multiple and integrated environmental initiatives. This framework can guide policy decisions to choose appropriate options on forest transition types most suitable to achieve specific end goals at local and regional scales, considering both ecosystem services and disservices to avoid trade-offs in which the achievement of one goal is detrimental to another. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
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Item type:Publication, South American Mountain Ecosystems and Global Change–A Case Study for Integrating Theory and Field Observations for Land Surface Modelling and Ecosystem Management(Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2023-01-01)Background: Plot-based monitoring has yielded much information on the taxonomic diversity and carbon (C) storage in tropical lowland forests of the Amazon basin. This has resulted in an improved understanding of the relationship between lowland forest biomass dynamics and global change drivers, such as climate change and atmospheric CO2 concentration. Much less attention has been paid to the mountain ecosystems of South America that comprise montane forests and alpine vegetation (páramo, puna, high Andean grasslands, wetlands, and alpine heath). This vegetation complex provides a variety of ecosystem services and forms a natural laboratory along various physiographic, geological and evolutionary history/biogeography, and land use history gradients. Aims: Here, we review existing empirical understanding and model-based approaches to quantify the contribution of mountain ecosystems to ecosystem service provision in the rapidly changing socioecological setting of the South American mountains. The objective of this paper is to outline a broad road map for the implementation of mountain vegetation into dynamic global vegetation models (DGVM) for use in Earth System Models (ESM), based on our current understanding of their structure and function and of their responsiveness to global change drivers. We also identify treeline processes, critical in mountain ecosystems, as key missing elements in DGVMs/ESMs, and thus explore in addition a treeline model. Methods: Stocktaking of the availability of empirical data was undertaken from eight research sites along the Andes and in south-eastern Brazil. Out of eight sites, two (one each in Venezuela and Brazil) had some climate, ecological and ecophysiological data potentially suitable to parametrise a DGVM. Tree biomass data were available for six sites. A preliminary assessment of the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) DGVM was made to identify gaps in available data and their impacts on model parametrisation and calibration. Additionally, the potential climate-determined elevation of the treeline was modelled to check the DGVM for its ability to identify the transition between the montane forest and alpine vegetation. Results: Outcomes of the evaluation of the JULES land surface model identified the following key processes in montane forests: temperature-related decrease in net primary production, respiration, and allocation to above-ground biomass and increase in soil C stocks with elevation. There was a variable agreement between simulated biomass and those derived from field measurements via allometric equations. Conclusions: We identified major gaps between data availability and the needs for process-based modelling of South American mountain vegetation and its dynamics in DGVMs. To bridge this gap, we propose a transdisciplinary network, composed of members of the theoretical/modelling and empirical scientific communities, to study the natural dynamics of mountain ecosystems and their responses to global change drivers locally, regionally and at the continental scale, within a social-ecological system framework. The work presented here forms the basis for the design of data collection from field measurements and instrumental monitoring stations to parametrise and verify DGVMs. The network is designed to collaborate with and complement existing long-term research initiatives in the region and will adopt existing standard field protocols. Complementary protocols will ensure compatibility between field data collection and data needed for process-based and empirical models. - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Land Use Change Alters Hydrological Drivers of Soil Erosion in the Tapesco River Watershed, Zarcero, Costa Rica(Wiley, 2025-12-01)Soil erosion is a major environmental concern in tropical mountain ecosystems where steep terrain, intense rainfall and dynamic land use changes contribute to the accelerated degradation of natural resources. This study assesses the spatiotemporal patterns of potential soil erosion in the Tapesco River watershed, a peri‐urban territory located in Costa Rica's Central Volcanic Mountain Range, for the years 1986, 1998, 2011 and 2019. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was implemented within a Geographic Information System (GIS) framework, incorporating five critical factors: rainfall erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K), topographic slope length and steepness (LS), land cover (C) and conservation practices (P). By interpreting these factors as proxies of hydrological processes—such as rainfall energy, runoff generation, infiltration capacity and hillslope hydrological connectivity—the analysis provides insight into how water‐driven erosion mechanisms evolve under land use change. The results reveal significant changes in erosion rates strongly associated with land use transitions and climatic variability over the study period. Forested and pasture lands consistently exhibited lower erosion rates, whereas areas under annual crops and steep slopes were subject to markedly greater soil loss. A substantial increase in erosion was observed between 1986 and 1998 followed by a partial recovery by 2019, corresponding with a decline in agricultural land use and the expansion of forest and pasture areas. Furthermore, an erosion risk exposure map identified that 28.9% of the watershed—mainly in the eastern and upper watershed—remains highly vulnerable to erosion. These findings underscore the value of spatially explicit erosion modelling as a critical tool for informing sustainable land management and targeted soil conservation efforts in fragile tropical mountain landscapes. These findings demonstrate how shifts in hydrological processes—particularly runoff concentration, rainfall–runoff response and surface–vegetation interactions—mediate erosion dynamics over time. Overall, the study highlights how soil erosion modelling can improve understanding of hydrological functioning in tropical peri‐urban landscapes and provide actionable information for integrated soil–water management.3