Los pastizales y matorrales de zonas áridas y semiáridas de México: Estatus actual, retos y perspectivas

Abstract

El objetivo fue revisar el estado actual de los pastizales semiáridos y matorrales áridos del norte y centro de México, así como analizar los retos y perspectivas del uso de estos ecosistemas. Desde la década de los años 1950, el INIFAP en colaboración con otras instituciones han generado y transferido conocimientos sobre manejo de pastizales, lo cual se ha reflejado en el uso de prácticas de manejo en los ranchos ganaderos del país. Los pastizales y matorrales han sufrido disturbios, principalmente la apertura de tierras para cultivos y se encuentran deteriorados principalmente por el sobrepastoreo. La utilización de los pastizales y matorrales a través del pastoreo debería incluir una carga animal adecuada, sistemas de pastoreo y prácticas estratégicas de distribución del pastoreo. A pesar del deterioro, existe una gran diversidad de recursos genéticos, principalmente de pastos, que pueden ser utilizados para conservación y producción de semilla para rehabilitación de los pastizales. La resiembra, aunque de alto costo y riesgo, es una opción para rehabilitar aquellos pastizales o matorrales deteriorados. Estos ecosistemas pueden proporcionar servicios ambientales, principalmente captura de carbono para mitigar el cambio climático. Los retos son generar, transferir y aplicar conocimientos e innovaciones tecnológicas para lograr un manejo sostenible de los pastizales y matorrales, a pesar de algunas amenazas como la baja inversión en ciencia y tecnología, el cambio climático y la avaricia humana. Para lograr esto, es imprescindible la participación conjunta y comprometida de todos los actores e instituciones involucrados en el uso de estos ecosistemas.

Ecogeography and Climate Change in Forage Grasses from Arid and Semi-Arid Regions of Mexico

“…In general, climate change is expected to affect grasslands by directly and much more dramatically decreasing the productivity and contribution of environmental services of the grasslands and shrublands of Northern Mexico. This will impact the carrying capacity of grasslands, with reductions in meat production, loss of biodiversity, decrease in carbon-capture capacity, and effects on the hydrological cycle of these ecosystems [20,23,68,69]. It is important to emphasize that there are many studies worldwide on the ecology of grasslands.…”

“…Regarding these actions, in recent years, morphological characterization studies have been carried out with the objective focusing on selecting ecotypes of native grasses, such as blue grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis), green sprangletop grass (Leptochloa dubia), Arizona cottontop grass (Digitaria californica), large-spike bristlegrass (Setaria macrostachya), sideoats grama grass (Bouteloua curtipendula), and lobero grass (Muhlenbergia phleoides), with the purpose of finding genotypes that adapt to local climatic conditions and with greater probabilities of being used in grassland rehabilitation programs [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Seed yield variables of five wild Poaceae species in La Siberia, Chapingo, México

“…The study was conducted in the experimental area "La Siberia", which contains a surface of 32 ha, in geographical coordinates 19° 28' 18.30" and 19° 27' 41.00" N and 98° 50' 45.92" and 98° 51' 28.17" W, municipality of Texcoco, Estado de México, Mexico. The place is located at 2323 masl with haplic phaeozem and lithosol soil of medium texture and precipitation of 700 mm (INEGI, 2018). The study period covered from the month of June to October 2018.…”

“…The rehabilitation of degraded pasturelands of zones with scarce rainfall in Mexico is limited by the knowledge of the functioning of grasslands; therefore, this document contributes information that in natural grasslands there can be grass species that can serve to rehabilitate degraded areas to establish a seedbed with irrigation and as a source of genetic wealth for reclamation or rehabilitation. Because of this, according to Jurado-Guerra et al (2021), in Mexico grasslands are over-grazed in 95% and in shrubs 70%, which limits the production of the cow-calf system. Thus, the application of laws on conservation of resources and sustainable use of ecosystems is urgent, where the semi-arid zones are the most fragile (Hernández-Guzmán et al, 2021).…”

“…Dávila et al (2006) report 204 genera and 1182 species, and of these 278 are endemic and 159 are introduced and/or cultivated. In Mexico, the low or null production of seed has reduced the reclamation of agricultural soils to their original vocation ( Jurado et al, 2021). Because of this, in semi-arid Mexico, the genus Bouteloua has nearly 60 species with broad intraspecific genetic variability (Peterson et al, 2015).…”