Challenges for research on global change in mainland Ecuador

Vanacker, Veerle; Molina, Armando; Torres, Rossana; Calderón, Edison; Cadilhac, Laura

doi:10.1080/23766808.2018.1491706

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…In addition, the expansion of urban areas and floriculture crops in the previous agricultural land, located at lower elevations of the eastern part of the territory could also make pressure for an expansion of the agricultural frontier in highland areas. Even though, we did not find evidence that climatic variation explained the LULC transitions, the effect of climate change could be stronger in a nearby future due to the extreme events predicted in the Tropical Andes [83], affecting the capacity of highland ecosystems to keep providing key goods and services to people [84].…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

Land use land cover dynamics through time and their proximate drivers of change in a tropical mountain system: a case study in a highland landscape of northern Ecuador

Guarderas

Smith

Dufrêne

2021

Preprint

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Tropical mountain ecosystems are threatened by land use pressures, reducing the capacity of ecosystems to provide a large diversity of benefits to people and to be able to achieve them in the long term. The analysis of land use pressures is often superficial and very general, although they are characterized by numerous interactions and strong differences in their local dynamics. We used a variety of freely available geospatial and temporal data and methods to assess and explain patterns of land use land cover (LULC) change, focusing on native ecosystem dynamics, in a sensitive region of the northern Ecuadorian Andes. Our results demonstrate a dynamic and clear geographical pattern of distinct LULC transitions through time, explained by different combination of socio-economic factors, pressure variables and environmental parameters, from which ecological context variables, such as slope and elevation, were the main drivers of change in this landscape. We found that deforestation of remnant native forest and agricultural expansion still occur in higher elevations located, while land conversion toward anthropic environments were observed in lower elevations to the east of the studied territory. Our findings also reveal an unexpected stability trend of paramo and a successional recovery of previous agricultural land to the west and center of the territory which could be explained by agricultural land abandonment. However, the very low probability of persistence of montane forests in most of the studied landscape, highlights the risk that the remnant montane forests will be permanently lost in a few years, posing a greater threat to the already vulnerable biodiversity and limiting the capacity ecosystem service provisioning. The dynamic patterns through space and time and their explanatory drivers, found in our study, could help improve sustainably resource land management in vulnerable landscapes such as the tropical Andes in northern Ecuador.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

Land use land cover dynamics through time and their proximate drivers of change in a tropical mountain system: a case study in a highland landscape of northern Ecuador

Guarderas

Smith

Dufrêne

2021

Preprint

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“…Secondly, the strategy of protected areas is not considered to effectively expand conservation areas by connecting isolated areas of important ecosystems or habitats outside of protected areas [59]. Therefore, stakeholders and funding agencies are questioning the effectiveness and efficiency of nationwide ecosystem conservation, although private and community land owners can benefit from a financial incentive in exchange for conservation of forests through the Socio Bosque Program [47,60].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…). As land use and cover have profoundly changed the natural habitats [47], we analyzed the current land use inside potential distribution of each forest ecosystem class, using five main land use types (Table 2) [46]: native forest, grassland/shrubland, agricultural land, urban area and other land cover (e.g., bare land and water bodies). Human-related land use types were considered as agricultural areas and urban areas.…”

Section: Decline Of Spatial Extent (B1ai or B2aimentioning

confidence: 99%

Warning about conservation status of forest ecosystems in tropical Andes: National assessment based on IUCN criteria

et al. 2020

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World ecosystems are suffering from anthropogenic and natural pressure. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has developed analogous criteria for the Red List of Threatened Species in order to perform similar risk assessments on ecosystems, creating the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) methodology. One of the most significant challenges for the construction of these lists is gathering the available information to apply the criteria. By applying IUCN RLE criteria B (the extent of restricted geographic distribution of an ecosystem), we analyzed the threat level of 64 forest ecosystems of the Ecuadorian mainland. According to the results, limited distribution is the key risk to threatened ecosystems, which are associated with anthropogenic pressures. Our study showed that 22% of forest ecosystems are classified as threatened. This evaluation of the forest ecosystem status at a national level could lead to public awareness towards ecosystem conservation and provide reasonable strategies to managers.

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“…This situation is cohesive with world and national projections, in respect to the scenarios of climate change that indicate increase in temperature, like that indicated by the third national communication of 0.6 ºC for the Ecuador coast (MAE 2017). At the national level, climate models predict a substantial warming of 5-6 ºC by the end of the century (Vanacker et al 2018).…”

Section: Methodological Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability of ecosystems with Guadua angustifolia in Ecuador in light of climate changes1

Romero

2019

Pesqui. Agropecu. Trop.

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Guadua angustifolia bamboo is historically used by an important percentage of the rural and peri-urban population of Ecuador, especially in the construction of bridges, when events like El Niño and its consequential flooding occur. This study aimed to determine, in light of some climate change scenarios, the vulnerability rate of ecosystems where the G. angustifolia bamboo species occurs, in the coastal region of continental Ecuador. The analysis methodology, with focus on the sampled units, was based on vulnerability assessment tools for climate adaptation recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Temperature presented the highest correlation coefficient with the vulnerability rate of the ecosystems, followed by the increase in the sea level, winds and landslides. It was concluded that as the exposure and sensitivity variables increase, the adaptive capacity of ecosystems with occurence of this species decreases, and isolated plants and monoculture plantations are the most vulnerable to climate changes.

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Challenges for research on global change in mainland Ecuador

Cited by 13 publications

References 45 publications

Land use land cover dynamics through time and their proximate drivers of change in a tropical mountain system: a case study in a highland landscape of northern Ecuador

Land use land cover dynamics through time and their proximate drivers of change in a tropical mountain system: a case study in a highland landscape of northern Ecuador

Warning about conservation status of forest ecosystems in tropical Andes: National assessment based on IUCN criteria

Vulnerability of ecosystems with Guadua angustifolia in Ecuador in light of climate changes1

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