Composition and floral diversity in Andean grasslands in natural post-harvest restoration with Lepidium meyenii Walpers

Abstract

The Andean grassland ecosystems undergo natural and anthropogenic degradation processes. The change of land use for agricultural use is the greatest threat, with a great loss of biodiversity followed by a very slow process of revegetalization. The objective was to assess the richness, abundance and diversity, alpha and beta, in areas of two-, three-, five-, six- and eight years of post-harvest abandonment of Lepidium meyenni Walpers. Ten affected areas were selected for agrostological evaluation, through four linear transects of interception points with 100 records each, applied on the edge and inside the affected area, inside and outside the affected areas, as well as samples composed of soils for each area. Composite soil samples were collected from each transect and study area to analyze their physical and chemical properties. The data were analyzed using the generalized linear mixed model with Rstudio v 5.3.2, and the multivariate analysis of canonical correspondence between biological and environmental variables, using CANOCO v.1.4 software. A significant difference was found between floral composition and alpha diversity according to abandonment time and seasonal periods. The greatest richness and abundance was observed between five- and eight years of abandonment, due to the greater presence of perennial species. Linear correspondence of alpha richness and diversity with organic matter, nitrogen, soil phosphorus and abandonment time was observed.

Andean Grassland Species: Net Aerial Primary Productivity, Density, Ecomorphological Indices, and Soil Characteristics

“…Andean grassland ecosystems are located between 3500 and 5000 metres above sea level, in an area that extends from northern Colombia to southern Argentina, in which the plant communities are made up of herbaceous plants, shrubs and small stands of native trees (Cuesta & Becerra, 2012). This scenario is generally covered by grasses, among a mosaic of plant formations such as: the tall growing species of the Poaceae family; the puna grasslands populated by upright and stunted species of the Poaceae, Aseteraceae, Cyperaceae, Rosaceae families, among others; the wetlands with the presence of aquatic and semi-aquatic species of the Juncaceae, Plantaginaceae, Apiaceae, Isoetaceae families, among others Gonnet et al, 2016;Yaranga et al, 2019). This Andean vegetation community is of great importance in the provision of fundamental ecosystem services for human life (Sun et al, 2017;Cabrera & Duivenvoorden, 2020); it also constitutes the natural base of the Andean livestock food resource, the main family economic activity, on which the survival and selfdevelopment of thousands of authentically rural families living in poverty depend (Fiallos, Herrera, & Velázquez, 2015;Yaranga, 2018).…”

Bacterial diversity in high Andean grassland soils disturbed with Lepidium meyenii crops evaluated by metagenomics

“…The analysis was carried out during the rainy 2018), drove land use change in the central Andes of Peru. In fragile ecosystems such as high Andean grasslands, they have been replaced by monocultures with high nutritional and functional demands such as Lepidium meyenii (maca) (Yaranga et al, 2014), displacing high Andean grasslands that play an important socio-economic role for livestock societies, wildlife livelihoods and important environmental services (Caro et al, 2014).…”

Journal of Water and Land Development

“…The wetlands are considered to be some of the most productive ecosystems [FACCIO 2010]. However, in recent years, the anthropogenic pressure on these ecosystems has increased due to multiple factors, such as overgrazing [COCHI-MACHACA et al 2018], uncontrolled peat extraction for energy purposes [CARO et al 2014], change of land use for crops [YARANGA et al 2019] and climate change that modifies precipitation and temperature regimes [ANDERSON et al 2021]. In the long term, this could result in drying and decay of bofedales that are not hydrologically connected to lakes and glaciers [BAIKER 2020].…”