The high-Andean vegetation ecosystems of the Bombón Plateau in Peru face increasing degradation due to aggressive anthropogenic land use and the climate change scenario. The lack of historical degradation evolution information makes implementing adaptive monitoring plans in these vulnerable ecosystems difficult. Remote sensor technology emerges as a fundamental resource to fill this gap. The objective of this article was to analyze the degradation of vegetation in the Bombón Plateau over almost four decades (1985–2022), using high spatiotemporal resolution data from the Landsat 5, 7, and 8 sensors. The methodology considers: (i) the use of the atmosphere resistant vegetation index (ARVI), (ii) the implementation of non-parametric Mann–Kendall trend analysis per pixel, and (iii) the affected vegetation covers were determined by supervised classification. This article’s results show that approximately 13.4% of the total vegetation cover was degraded. According to vegetation cover types, bulrush was degraded by 21%, tall grass by 18%, cattails by 16%, wetlands by 14%, and puna grass by 13%. The Spearman correlation (p < 0.01) determined that degraded covers are replaced by puna grass and change factors linked with human activities. Finally, this article concludes that part of the vegetation degradation is related to anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, overgrazing, urbanization, and mining. However, the possibility that environmental factors have influenced these events is recognized.

Diversidad florística de pastizales según formación vegetal en la subcuenca del río Shullcas, Junín, Perú

The quality of the aquatic environment of high Andean lagoons was evaluated by means of multivariate statistical methods in two contrasting climatic periods. The water samples and benthic macroinvertebrates were collected in 22 sampling sites during the rainy and dry seasons. In each lagoon DO,...

Research Highlights: Families more dependent on crops as the main source of income of properties have a greater intention of restoring Polylepis forest areas. However, this intention reduces with the increase of family dependence on subsistence products supplied by Polylepis forests. Properties where the chances of restoration of Polylepis forests are greater are those where the educational and technical level is better. Objectives: We aimed to comprehend which socioeconomic factors of rural properties and families’ perception were determinant for the intention to restore Polylepis forests in the Central Andes region of Peru. Material and Methods: We collected data through visits and the application of questionnaires. We selected 13 rural communities in the Tulumayo River Basin. We randomly sampled 10 to 20 families in each community, depending on its size, totaling 200 families. We used generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) to test which variables affect the intention to restore the forest. Results: When crops are the main source of income in the property, the families have more intention to restore Polylepis areas, on the other hand, when Polylepis forests are an important source of products for the family subsistence, the intention to restore forests reduces, indicating that higher technological status has a positive impact on restoration. The perception that Polylepis forests are important for the existence of water sources had a positive impact on the families’ intention to restore the areas. However, the perception that Polylepis forests are important for native flora persistence had a negative impact on the intention to restore their areas. Conclusions: Our results showed that investment in improving the productivity of the properties and in the education of their landowners should increase the success of eventual programs for restoration of Polylepis forests.

Knowledge of the flora and usefulness of Andean wetlands for livestock farming is very scarce, which led to interest in evaluating floral diversity, net aerial primary productivity (NAPP), ecological condition and carrying capacity for alpacas (CCA), in three wetlands of the Shullcas sub-basin in Peru. Floristic readings were taken in 10 quadrants distributed in a radial transect in each wetland and at typical times of the rainy and dry seasons. Phytomass cuts were made in regular periods of 30, 60, 90 and 120 days. Fourteen families of vascular plants with 33 genus and 41 species were found, the Shannon Wiener diversity index fluctuated between 2.28 ± 0.15 and 2.40 ± 0.17, the NAPP presented variation between the months evaluated in a range of 27.39 ± 33.73 to 97.86 ± 47.52 g dry material (DM)/m2, between cut-off periods from 132.12 ± 30.42 to 180.60 ± 32.89 g DM/m2 and between wetlands from 116.71 ± 34.6 to 192.18 ± 22.50 g DM/m2, all in good ecological condition; the CCA fluctuated between 1.38 ± 0.36 and 1.80 ± 0.40 alpacas/ha. The result obtained suggests that wetlands should be assessed for frequent periods in the year as a one-time replacement.

The tall grass vegetation in the Andean grassland ecosystems covers the largest area compared to other types of vegetation such as Puna grass, wetland and others. The grasslands are frequently set on fire by livestock farmer, seriously affecting the ecosystem. One way to mitigate this problem is...