A regional PECS node built from Place-based social-ecological sustainability research in Latin America and the Caribbean
Fecha de publicación: 31/01/2022

La sostenibilidad requiere una combinación de coproducción significativa de soluciones relevantes a nivel local, síntesis de conocimientos adquiridos en todas las regiones y una mayor cooperación entre la ciencia, la política y la práctica. El Programa para el Cambio de los Ecosistemas y la Sociedad (PECS) ha estado coordinando la Investigación de Sostenibilidad Ecológica Social Basada en el Lugar (PBSESR) en todo el mundo y enfatiza la necesidad de nodos científicos regionales de diversas regiones bioculturales para informar la ciencia y la acción de la sostenibilidad. En este documento, evaluamos las fortalezas de las comunidades PBSESR en América Latina y el Caribe (LAC). Brindamos una descripción general de la literatura PBSESR asociada con esta región y destacamos los logros de dos redes regionales destacadas: La Red de Investigación en Sistemas Socio-Ecológicos y Sustentabilidad de México (SocioEcoS) y el Instituto Sudamericano de Estudios de Resiliencia y Sustentabilidad de Uruguay (Instituto SARAS). Finalmente, identificamos el potencial de estos nodos para constituir un nodo regional de PECS en América Latina y discutimos la capacidad necesaria para garantizar tal función. Los resultados de la revisión de la literatura muestran que, si bien todavía están poco interconectadas en la región, las redes desempeñan un papel clave en la conexión de equipos que de otro modo estarían enclaustrados e ilustramos cómo la red SocioEcoS (que se centra en la coproducción transdisciplinaria de conocimiento hacia la sostenibilidad) y el Instituto SARAS (que se centra en sobre enfoques innovadores para analizar problemas socioecológicos complejos, arraigados en la ciencia y las artes lentas) funcionan como conectores clave en la región.

Ecosystem services in urban ecological infraestructure of Latin America and the Caribbean: hoy do they contribute to urban planning?
Fecha de publicación: 01/08/2020

We developed a conceptual framework that describes the key role of ecosystem services in urban ecological infrastructure. From this framework we analyze how research on ecosystem services has been addressed in cities of Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to discuss their incorporation into policies of urban planning, in the context of nature-based solutions and sustainable development goals. Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina represent 90% of research in urban ecosystem services, all of them except Colombia had carried out studies considering green, blue and gray-hybrid infrastructures. However, green-hybrid infrastructure clustered most of the studies. Ecosystem service supply component and intermediate beneficiaries are the most studied. Our results show that most studies have not been developed from the perspective of the biophysical, sociocultural or economic assessment of ecosystem services, on the contrary we recognized or deduced them from proxy variables found within the studies. Our findings suggest that the study of urban ecosystem services in Latin America and the Caribbean is in development and has begun to increase in the last decade. However, we found that the incorporation of urban ecosystem services in urban planning is low, but at the same time, it is in a promising development related to the application of innovative actions such as nature-based solutions and in support of the new global urban agenda.

Linking biodiversity, ecosystem services, and beneficiaries of tropical dry forests of Latin America: Review and new perspectives
Fecha de publicación: 18/03/2019

We conducted a systematic literature review to identify and analyze research linking biodiversity, ecosystem services and their beneficiaries in tropical dry forests of Latin America. By assessing 71 studies published in the last 20 years, we addressed two questions: i) when research on links between biodiversity, ecosystem services and beneficiaries began and which of these links have been addressed the most? ii) how these links were addressed? Research on links began in 1997. Studies have been carried out mostly on a local scale and lasted for one year or more. Links between biodiversity and ecosystem services were the most frequently addressed (24% of total studies) considering biodiversity as a regulator of ecosystem processes. Plants and mammals’ abundance and richness were mainly linked with regulating and provisioning services. While these links have started to be addressed, only five studies actually linked the three components. It is necessary to redirect efforts towards studies effectively linking ecosystem services and beneficiaries, a link that still remains scarcely addressed. The current challenge for research is to incorporate the beneficiaries into the study of ecosystem services in tropical dry forests of Latin America and fill the information gaps by promoting long-term studies at larger spatial scales

Cultural significance of the flora of a tropical dry forest in the Doche vereda (Villavieja, Huila, Colombia)
Fecha de publicación: 22/03/2018

In Colombia, ethnobotanical studies regarding plant cultural significance (CS) in tropical dry forests are scarce and mainly focused on the Caribbean region. Different authors have indicated that the plants with the most uses are those of greater cultural importance. Additionally, gender differences in knowledge and interest in natural resources has been widely recorded. This study evaluated the cultural significance of plants in the Doche community, in the Department of Huila. Furthermore, it evaluates the richness of plant knowledge among local inhabitants, looking for testing the hypothesis that the CS of plants positively correlates to the number of uses people inform about, and that there are significant differences on the richness of ethnobotanical knowledge between men and women in this community.

Resilience of Soil Properties to Land‐Use Change in a Tropical Dry Forest Ecosystem
Fecha de publicación: 13/02/2018

Land‐use change in tropical dry forests can dramatically alter soil properties, but little is known about their resilience. We assessed soil resilience by examining resistance to, as well as recovery from, pasture use by smallholder farmers in western Mexico. We measured 25 soil and vegetation properties and compared old‐growth forest (OGF) sites and pastures to evaluate resistance to pasture use. We assessed whether those properties recovered to OGF reference values after pasture abandonment by analyzing the trajectories of properties along a chronosequence of secondary vegetation. Finally, we assessed whether recovery of soil properties could be inferred from the recovery of vegetation properties. Nine out of 25 properties differed significantly between the OGF sites and pastures. From these nine nonresistant properties, six (i.e., penetration resistance, soil C concentration, soil C/N, basal area, individual density, rarefied species richness of woody vegetation) showed recovery as a significant positive relationship with forest age. In contrast, surface litter C, litter C/N, and soil available P showed no resistance and no recovery within the successional period examined (up to 35 y). The best vegetation indicator for the recovery of some soil properties was woody species richness. This may suggest that functional differences of colonizing plants matter for recovery after pasture use. Our findings indicate that soil was overall resilient to pasture use, but some properties did not recover synchronously with vegetation properties during succession. Thus, more attention should be paid to soil function, because full ecosystem recovery is often inferred from the recovery of vegetation properties.