Hydrology of the palmar state reserve, yucatán, México: hydrological budget of petenes

Abstract

Throughout the coastal zone of Yucatan state (Mexico), between the coastal sandbar, and the land with low dry forest, are the flooded low forest, mangroves, and swamps. It is within these swampy lands, where are found numerous arboreal islands or petenes (local name). It has been outlined that its importance is because the water contribution from springs to the basin. As a contribution to the knowledge of the petenes, it was developed a hydrological monitoring system to estimate the hydrological budget of a petén located 3 km southwest of the population of Sisal in the restoration zone of the Palmar Reserve, Yucatan. The analysis showed that the groundwater inflow represented 92 % of the total of inflow to the system, with the net precipitation representing only 6 % and the surface inflow 2 %. By the other side, the surface outflow represented 40 % of the total of the outflow of the system, the groundwater outflow 20 % and the evapotranspiration 40 %. The annual total balance resulted negative (it means fluxes out of the petenes) with a volume from storage of about – 129,288.28 m3. The springs in the interior of the petenes can become more determinant in the hydrologic balance of the community than the contribution of the pluvial precipitation, the hydrodynamics of swamps, or the influence of the waters of the sea.