Indicators for assessing tropical alpine rehabilitation practices

Abstract

In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of indicators for rehabilitation practices in high mountain landscapes that were aimed at increasing grassland palatability and biomass accumulation. Focusing on the department of Huancavelica in Peru, the importance of rehabilitation practiced in this area involves the relationship of alpaca pastoralists and their need to produce wool. Overgrazing in this area has decreased the carrying capacity of the system, which may be problematic for continuing their present levels of grazing. Therefore, rehabilitation practices, including herbivory exclusion, exclusion with added irrigation, and exclusion with water collecting ditches, were installed to increase vegetation biomass and palatability of the vegetation. The effects of the rehabilitation practices were assessed using six indicators: vegetation coverage, species richness, Shannon‐Weiner Diversity Index, below and aboveground biomass, and soil organic matter, which were analyzed using mixed‐effects models. The indicators show that some practices, such as exclusion and ditches, are positively affecting vegetation coverage while negatively affecting species richness. Additionally, biomass showed lower accumulation in areas not excluded from grazing. Therefore, although some of the treatments were initiated as recently as 2013, we can already observe changes in the indicators involving vegetation composition and structure. In the long term, these indicators may allow us to fully understand the effect of the rehabilitation practices on maintaining the carrying capacity of the system. Furthermore, the general approach should be widely applicable in other utilized landscapes.

Climate Vulnerability Assessment of the Espeletia Complex on Páramo Sky Islands in the Northern Andes

“…Vast areas of Páramo land now safe from conflict are not being rapidly protected, making them susceptible to deforestation for cattle and agriculture (Avellaneda-Torres et al, 2020), and illegal logging (Vásquez et al, 2015) and mining (Pérez-Escobar et al, 2018). Thus, improving the current network of protected areas would help minimizing ongoing threats (Duchicela et al, 2019), especially in the highly diverse Páramo complexes of the Eastern Cordillera where putatively new species are still being discovered (Diazgranados and Sanchez, 2017;Mavárez, 2019a). Alongside adoption of mitigation policies, adaptation policies (Elsen et al, 2020) may help safeguarding Páramos.…”

The effect of livestock grazing on plant diversity and productivity of mountainous grasslands in South America – A meta‐analysis

“…This suggests that changes in community composition are rapidly taking place while gain or extinction of species takes a longer duration to manifest (Milchunas & Lauenroth, 1993 ). This difference is most likely due to changes in abundance of species with particular traits in grazing treatments (Duchicela et al., 2020 ). For example, previous studies in South American mountainous grasslands have shown that grazing is associated with a reduction in dominance of palatable species, such as short grasses species with higher specific leaf area (SLA) and an increase in abundance of tolerant species, with higher leaf dry matter content (LDMC) such as cushion and prostate grasses (Diaz et al., 2004 ; Sandoval‐Calderon et al., 2023 ).…”