Background The Indigenous Kichwa Saraguro people of southern Ecuador have long relied on traditional burning to manage their environment. However, their traditional use of fire in one of the most important ecosystems in southern Ecuador, the herbaceous paramo, is not well known. This lack of knowledge does not allow for the improvement of local regulations related to integrated fire management, which is a shortcoming compared to other regulations applied in South America. In this context, and to understand the impacts of the Indigenous use of fire, a climatic analysis of the area was carried out, generating a historical climograph (period: years 1981–2021) and four annual climographs that were contrasted with a remote sensing study of fire severity over 4 years (years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021). In addition, traditional fire use was determined through the application of semi-structured interview questionnaires applied to 61 women and 89 men, whose data were analyzed with the level of information fidelity (LIF), informant consensus factor (ICF), and principal component analysis (PCA). Therefore, in this study, we argue that it is important to incorporate the concepts of (i) wildfire severity and (ii) cultural burning in wildfire policies and regulations in southern Ecuador. Results The results indicate that low-severity fires occur within the Saraguro territory and that fire use knowledge is transmitted to new generations incorporating both how and where to perform traditional burning. They also know when to burn using the burning calendar that is generally applied during the climatic phenomenon known as “Veranillo del Niño” (VdN). Conclusions These results can help decision-makers design policies, regulations, and proposals for the correct use of fire as a tool for the management of ecosystems in southern Ecuador affected by wildfires. In addition, the results can be used to improve the National Strategy for Integrated Fire Management 2021–2025 promoted by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition of Ecuador.

No abstract

Humid montane scrublands (HMs) represent one of the least studied ecosystems in Ecuador, which in the last decade have been seriously threatened by the increase in wildfires. Our main objective was to evaluate the effects of wildfire severity on physicochemical soil properties in the HMs of southern Ecuador. For this purpose, fire severity was measured using the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and the difference between pre-fire and post-fire (NBR Pre-fire-NBR Post-fire) over three contrasted periods (years 2019, 2017, and 2015) was determined. Likewise, 72 soil samples from burned HMs and 72 soil samples from unburned HMs were collected at a depth of 0 to 10 cm, and some physical (bulk density and texture) and biochemical (pH, soil organic matter, and total nutrients) soil properties were analyzed and statistically processed by one-way ANOVA and principal component analysis (PCA). Results indicate that burned HMs showed mixed-severity burning patterns and that in the most recent wildfires that are of high severity, SOM, N, P, Cu, and Zn contents decreased drastically (PCA: component 1); in addition, there was an increase in soil compaction (PCA: component 2). However, in older wildfires, total SOM, N, P, K, and soil pH content increases with time compared even to HMs that never burned (p-value < 0.05). These results can help decision makers in the design of policies, regulations, and proposals for the environmental restoration of HMs in southern Ecuador affected by wildfires.

This study evaluated the effects of land-use change (L-UCH) on dung beetle community structure (Scarabaeinae) in a disturbed dry ecosystem in southern Ecuador. Five different L-UCH classes were analyzed by capturing the dung beetle species at each site using 120 pitfall traps in total. To determine dung beetle abundance and diversity at each L-UCH, a general linear model (GLM) and a redundancy analysis (RDA) were applied, which correlated environmental and edaphic conditions to the community structure. Furthermore, changes in dung-producing vertebrate fauna were examined, which varied significantly between the different L-UCH classes due to the specific anthropogenic use or level of ecosystem disturbance. The results indicated that soil organic matter, pH, potassium, and phosphorus (RDA: component 1), as well as temperature and altitude (RDA: component 2) significantly affect the abundance of beetles (GLM: p value < 0.001), besides the food availability (dung). The highest abundance and diversity (Simpson’s index > 0.4, Shannon-Wiener index > 1.10) was found in highly disturbed sites, where soils were generally more compacted, but with a greater food supply due to the introduced farm animals. At highly disturbed sites, the species Canthon balteatus, Dichotomius problematicus, and Onthphagus confuses were found specifically, which makes them useful as bio-indicators for disturbed dry forest ecosystems in southern Ecuador.

The degradation dynamics of lignin and cellulose were analyzed by means of a solid state biodegradation experiment, using residues from the essential oil extraction of the Palo Santo tree (Bursera graveolens). As such, two native Xylaria spp. and an exotic mushroom Trametes versicolor were incubated on the spent substrate (Residues of B. Graveolens, BGR’s). The relatively high lignin and cellulose contents of the BGRs (9.1% and 19%, respectively) indicated the potential of this resource for the production of methane (biogas) and ethanol. However, the degradation of the lignin and cellulose content could be traced back to the relatively high activity of the enzymes laccase, cellulase, and xylanase, produced by the fungi. The results showed that laccase (30.0 U/L and 26.6 U/L), cellulase (27.3 U/L and 35.8 U/L) and xylanase (189.7U/L and 128.3 U/L) activities of Xylaria feejeensis and Xylaria cf. microceras were generally higher than T. versicolor (9.0 U/L, 29.5 U/L, 99.5 U/L respectively). Furthermore, the total carbon (TC: 47.3%), total nitrogen (TN: 1.5%), total phosphorus (TP: 0.2%) and total potassium (TK: 1.2%) dynamics were analyzed during the experiment and their importance for the degradation process highlighted. The results of this work might serve as guidance for future studies in dry forest areas, while furthering the understanding of the potential use of native fungi as ecologic lignocellulosic decomposers and for industrial proposes.