Condiciones meteorológicas en las lomas de Mejia en "El Niño 1997-98" y su influencia en la vegetación

Abstract

RESUMENSe evaluó los cambios en la vegetación de las lomas de Mejía -Arequipa y se registró automáticamente temperatura, radiación solar global y neta, temperatura y contenido de agua en el suelo, y precipitación en la Estación Meteorológica Campbell, ubicada en las lomas de Mejía, Distrito de Mejía, Provincia de Islay, Departamento de Arequipa, Perú, a 750 msnm, entre 17 Q 03' LS y 71 2 50' LW; ubicada ecológicamente en la zona de vida Matorral desértico -Templado cálido. Durante el ENOS 1997-98 (agosto 97 -marzo 98): la temperatura ambiental promedio osciló entre 14,1 Y 19,1ºC, la precipitación tuvo dos máximos que se alcanzaron en los meses de setiembre con 189,4 mm y 173,6 mm en febrero, teniéndose un acumulado de 715,4 mm y la evaporación acumulada fue de 271 ,8 mm. En la evaluación de la vegetación, resultante de estas condiciones climáticas, se tiene que: antes de "El Niño" se registró 89 especies de plantas, y debido al incremento en abundancia de la precipitación y del contenido hídrico en el suelo se tuvo 170 especies, es decir un aumento del 91 %. before "El Niño", 89 species of plants were recorded; and because an increase in abundance 01 the species and hydric soil content were obtained 170 species of plants, that is an increase of 91%.

Plant community dynamics of lomas fog oasis of Central Peru after the extreme precipitation caused by the 1997-98 El Niño event

“…In the Peruvian and Chilean coastal deserts [ 14 – 16 ] and the northern Peruvian dry forest [ 17 , 18 ] El Niño events result in a substantial increase in vegetation within these ecosystems. In addition to the increase of primary productivity, an increased number of species has been recorded during this event [ 14 , 16 , 19 , 20 ] as well as a higher production of seeds [ 21 , 22 ]. Most of these studies focused only on the El Niño phase and very few on the subsequent La Niña phase but some long-term studies exist, mostly restricted to Chile [ 2 , 16 , 23 ].…”

“…However, during El Niño events, high precipitation occurs throughout the year, causing constant vegetation presence, especially of ephemeral herbs [ 14 ]. Most studies that recorded El Niño event effects on lomas plant communities have focused on quantifying species richness [ 14 , 16 , 19 , 34 ], primary productivity [ 35 ] or abundance [ 36 , 37 ] separately. Recent studies have considered a more integrative assessment of lomas plant communities [ 24 , 38 ].…”

High-Resolution Bioclimatic Surfaces for Southern Peru: An Approach to Climate Reality for Biological Conservation

“…Additionally, the areas predicted by the model almost perfectly match the lomas vegetation maps [35,36]. In fact, the results show how precipitation occurs in certain sectors of the coastal mountain range (at a certain altitude, slope and orientation), recalling that these ecosystems are specific oases of life surrounded by one of the driest deserts in the world [65]. Anyhow, this is just an applicable solution for these particular ecosystems with closely related climate and vegetation [66].…”

“…Though in the coastal area of southern Peru there are weather stations which are very close to the coast, these do not reflect the precipitation occurring a few kilometers inland, in the lomas ecosystems. Even during the ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) events, in stations located close to the coast, precipitation is considerably lower compared to that in the lomas [67]. The veracity of the values found for the "virtual" stations could not be verified here, since the only two stations present in these ecosystems were used for data generation.…”