Ecohydrology and ecosystem services of a natural and an artificial bofedal wetland in the central Andes

Monge-Salazar, María J; Tovar, Carolina; Cuadros-Adriazola, José; Baiker, Jan R.; Montesinos-Tubée, Daniel B.; Bonnesoeur, Vivien; Antiporta, Javier; Román-Dañobeytia, Francisco; Fuentealba, Beatriz; Ochoa‐Tocachi, B. F.; Buytaert, Wouter

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155968

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Utility investments are introducing surveillance to protect bofedales and restoring damaged wetlands. Scientists have also studied a local practice of carving out more space for water in the landscape to expand the bofedales, and found that these expansions can store similar quantities of water as the original bogs 7 .…”

Section: Slow Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Smarter ways with water

Gies¹

2022

Nature

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In just a few months this year, abnormally low water levels in rivers led China to shut down factories and to floods in one-third of Pakistan, killing around 1,500 people and grinding the country to a halt. A dried-up Rhine River threatened to tip Germany's economy into recession, because cargo ships could not carry standard loads. And the Las Vegas strip turned into a river and flooded casinos, chasing customers away. It seems that such water disasters pepper the news daily now.Peru's water utility companies are protecting peat bogs because of their ability to hold water.

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Section: Slow Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

Smarter ways with water

Gies¹

2022

Nature

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“…Due to the acidic and anoxic environment often created by these cushion bogs, they can form copious amounts of peat, accumulating several meters over the course of a few thousand years (Earle et al, 2003). Bofedales are important water, plant, and animal resources for past and modern human societies, as they are sources of livestock fodder, for example, grazing for animals; hence, Bofedales are part of the agricultural system of the nearby communities, providing an important source of income for them (Chimner et al, 2019;Cochi Machaca et al, 2018;Monge-Salazar et al, 2022;Squeo et al, 2006). Despite the recent increase in research on high-Andean wetlands, driven by their ecological and social significance (Chimner et al, 2019;Cooper et al, 2019;Valois et al, 2020Valois et al, , 2021, a lack of adequate hydrogeological characterization and understanding of their ecosystem features and functions persists, for example, carbon storage, forage provisioning, and water regulation (Monge-Salazar et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Quebrada Negra wetland study: An approach to understand plant diversity, hydrology, and hydrogeology of high‐Andean wetlands

Suárez,

Sarabia,

Sanzana

et al. 2023

WIREs Water

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High‐Andean peatlands are high‐altitude wetland ecosystems found throughout the arid central Andes of South America. They form through the establishment of specialized grasses and cushion sedges that are well‐adapted to cold temperatures, in areas where groundwater emerges. The Silala River is a groundwater‐fed high‐Andean fluvial system, which emerges in various springs that generate wetlands, the Cajones and Orientales (Bolivia), the river's headwater sources, and the Quebrada Negra (Chile) being the most important. This article reviews detailed monitoring undertaken in the undisturbed Quebrada Negra wetland to provide insights into wetland processes, and to compare its functioning to that of the Bolivian wetlands, which were channelized a century ago. Vegetation composition was found to be similar among the three wetlands, and their spatiotemporal vegetation cover distribution showed strong seasonal and interannual variability. The channelized Bolivian wetlands have the highest annual actual evapotranspiration values (~700 mm, due to their higher vegetation vigor), as estimated using remote sensing, ~10% greater than that obtained in the undisturbed Quebrada Negra wetland. For the Quebrada Negra wetland, groundwater monitoring revealed that hydraulic head contours are consistent with the topography, although water sources to the wetland are complex to identify. While significant groundwater inflows arise at the wetland edges, upwelling and downwelling conditions are observed at various locations within the wetland, similar to other high‐Andean wetlands. The observations suggest that while the underlying groundwater discharge sustains the saturated conditions of the wetland, the spatial variability of groundwater inputs results in a negligible impact of channelization on wetland evapotranspiration.This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Stresses and Pressures on Ecosystems Science of Water > Hydrological Processes

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“…Bofedales provide essential ecosystem services including water provision, biodiversity and carbon sequestration (Maldonado Fonkén, 2014; Mango‐Mamani, 2017; Miguel et al, 2012; Monge‐Salazar et al, 2022; Polk et al, 2017; Yager et al, 2019). They are also an essential part of the Andean indigenous heritage and culture, including their traditions, economic activities, recreation, landscape aesthetics and spiritualism (Alcántara‐Boñón, 2014; Mango‐Mamani, 2017; White‐Nockleby et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal water storage and release dynamics of bofedal wetlands in the Central Andes

Ross

Mendoza

Drenkhan

et al. 2023

Hydrological Processes

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Tropical high‐Andean wetlands, locally known as ‘bofedales’, are key ecosystems sustaining biodiversity, carbon sequestration, water provision and livestock farming. Bofedales' contribution to dry season baseflows and sustaining water quality is crucial for downstream water security. The sensitivity of bofedales to climatic and anthropogenic disturbances is therefore of growing concern for watershed management. This study aims to understand seasonal water storage and release characteristics of bofedales by combining remote sensing analysis and ground‐based monitoring for the wet and dry seasons of late 2019 to early 2021, using the glacierised Vilcanota‐Urubamba basin (Southern Peru) as a case study. A network of five ultrasound loggers was installed to obtain discharge and water table data from bofedal sites across two headwater catchments. The seasonal extent of bofedales was mapped by applying a supervised machine learning model using Random Forest on imagery from Sentinel‐2 and NASADEM. We identified high seasonal variability in bofedal area with a total of 3.5% and 10.6% of each catchment area, respectively, at the end of the dry season (2020), which increased to 15.1% and 16.9%, respectively, at the end of the following wet season (2021). The hydrological observations and bofedal maps were combined into a hydrological conceptual model to estimate the storage and release characteristics of the bofedales, and their contribution to runoff at the catchment scale. Estimated lag times between 1 and 32 days indicate a prolonged bofedal flow contribution throughout the dry season (about 74% of total flow). Thus, our results suggest that bofedales provide substantial contribution to dry season baseflow, water flow regulation and storage. These findings highlight the importance of including bofedales in local water management strategies and adaptation interventions including nature‐based solutions that seek to support long‐term water security in seasonally dry and rapidly changing Andean catchments.

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Ecohydrology and ecosystem services of a natural and an artificial bofedal wetland in the central Andes

Cited by 13 publications

References 44 publications

Smarter ways with water

Smarter ways with water

The Quebrada Negra wetland study: An approach to understand plant diversity, hydrology, and hydrogeology of high‐Andean wetlands

Seasonal water storage and release dynamics of bofedal wetlands in the Central Andes

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