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Invasive plants have a wide distribution worldwide. Their ability to adapt and colonize different climates is attributed to the phenotypic plasticity and the expansion of the climatic niche of the species. Simultaneously, their distribution patterns will be affected by climate change, creating or reducing the ideal areas for their establishment. We evaluated the current and potential distribution of Ulex europaeus L. in Colombia, under the global circulation models ACCESS-ESM1-5 and MIROC6 in two scenarios, for the years 2041–2060, taking into account its climate niche expansion. An ecological niche model was built for this purpose using Maxent algorithm of the KUENM, the records of the species in native and invasive condition from the GBIF portal, and records obtained through field trips and bioclimatic variables from Worldclim2 were used. Changes in potential distribution were analyzed with the Biomod2. A total of 1072 occurrence records were found for U. europaeus and 109 records were found in Colombia in the Cordillera Central and Oriental, where an expansion of the altitudinal range was evidenced from 2000 to 4052 m above sea level. Climate change models for Colombia showed that the creation of new areas for potential establishment is less than 1% and there is a reduction in potential distribution of 12 and 31% due to unsuitable climatic conditions that would affect their germination capacity. However, given its potential for adaptation, the invasions will persist in the new conditions and will continue their colonization process at higher altitudes where they find optimal temperatures for their germination and establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The páramos of Boyacá in Colombia are earmarked for delimitation to prevent the expansion of the agricultural frontier and protect endemic flora that contribute to water provision for cities. A varied conservation toolbox will be used, including the creation of protected areas for re-wilding and the 'sustainable' transitioning of livelihoods identified as environmentally destructive. Agriculture and cattle livestock farming has been identified for transitioning. Despite the negative discourse related to livestock holding, this paper argues that small-scale agropastoralism contributes to re-peasantisation and provides the foundations for an agrobiodiverse conservation approach. Agropastoralism facilitates re-peasantisation through strong socio-economic networks, interconnected communities, the solidarity economy, and self-management of natural resources. Whilst, agropastoral mobility spatially binds social networks across large and disconnected spaces. Mobility is also fundamental to dynamic land access and pasture management, as it prevents over-grazing. This exemplifies how resilient socio-economic networks and mobile production strategies could be harnessed for agrobiodiversity, instead of land sparing and other sedentary 'green' economies. This paper makes conceptual contributions to 'autonomy' in re-peasantisation by empirically demonstrating the importance of mobile and flexible systems of production. It also makes a novel methodological contribution in applying a spatial lens that further unpacks how movement across the páramos facilitates autonomy and re-peasantisation. These themes are explored using interview data from 53 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and small-scale agropastoralists from across the páramos and field observation. The paper concludes by recommending a harnessing of agropastoral knowledge, to potentiate agrobiodiversity, for a more socio-ecologically just approach to farming and conservation in the páramos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly conductive topsoils in neotropical high-elevation grassland-dominated ecosystems, or so-called paramos in the Andean region, influence the local rainfall-runoff processes predominated by saturation-excess overland flow as the primary source of freshwater. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model has shown limitations when applied to mountainous catchments with highly conductive soils that generate surface runoff as saturation-excess overland flow. In this study, we enhanced SWAT to simulate runoff as saturation-excess overland flow and examined the hydrological responses of an intensively monitored paramo catchment in Ecuador. The model setup considered a detailed representation of the hydro-physical properties of the soils at different depths, including high infiltration and lateral flow rates in the hillslopes and restricted groundwater interactions, a characteristic of the páramo catchments. SWAT reasonably reproduced the daily discharge during dry and wet periods and the cumulative occurrence of high and low flows. The performance metrics NSE, RSR, and PBIAS values during calibration/validation period were 0.86/0.84, 0.31/0.4, and −11.2/-7.58, respectively. The runoff ratio and partitioning of the total runoff into the lateral flow and surface runoff were physically meaningful. More significantly, SWAT was able to simulate saturation-excess overland flow, which is dominant compared to infiltration excess, and it is a distinctive characteristic of páramo catchments. Nevertheless, the model showed limitations in simulating low flows.

The páramos have a great diversity of flora, including terricolous non-tracheophyte photoautotrophs (bryophytes and lichens). Bryophytes and lichens are very sensitive to environmental changes related to anthropogenic fires, livestock, and agricultural activities. We determined for the first time in Ecuador the effects of prescribed fires on the pyrodiversity of terricolous non-tracheophyte photoautotroph in a páramo of South Ecuador. Three permanent sampling plots (T1, T2, and control) were established, each with a dimension of 4 m × 20 m and separated by 3 m (T1: one with fire-induced uphill and T2: one with fire-induced downhill and one control). They were installed in three different blocks, obtaining a total of nine plots. Three samplings (2, 6, and 12 months) were carried out in each plot, where the cover and richness of terricolous bryophytes and lichens were estimated in 216 quadrats of 20 × 30 cm. A total of 27 species (11 lichens and 16 bryophytes) were studied, where the lichen families, that is, Cladoniaceae and Baeomycetaceae, as well as the bryophytes families, namely, Dicranaceae, Jungermanniaceae, Bartramiaceae, Rhacocarpaceae, and Pallaviciniaceae, have been recorded as pioneers in areas under fire effects. Richness and diversity (calculated using the Shannon–Weaver and Simpson indexes) were affected by fire treatments; on the other hand, monitoring time (M3) positively affected species diversity. The composition of terrestrial non-tracheophyte photoautotroph communities showed slight changes between the control and T1 and T2, but the changes were more marked with time after the burns (M1 vs. M3), related to fire severity. Therefore, terricolous lichen and bryophyte communities (richness and diversity) can be used as model organisms for the assessment of the effects of prescribed fires on tropical páramos for subsequent management and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unique high Andean ecosystems in South America as the "páramos" have been the object of conservation plans in the last decade. In Colombia, this spurred heated discussions when their conservation was promoted through the cartographic demarcation of their boundaries: what counts as "páramo" and what kind of activities should be allowed there have been highly contested topics. As part of a multisited ethnography that studies the case of páramos conservation with biologists, geographers, and campesinos in the Sumapaz region of Colombia, I argue that the analysis of boundaries is a crucial matter in the unfolding of conservation. By analyzing how boundaries are configured, coordinated, and contested in the conservation of páramos in Colombia, I advance an ontological approach to boundary-making as practices embedded in the concrete transformation of environmental worlds through the involvement of multiple agents such as humans, plants, and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys Colombia's social and environmental conflicts. Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world and has more than half of the world's paramos. The article analyses the dynamics of these conflicts, describing the legal and political framework. Despite the achievements of the social and environmental movements before the high courts and the national and international commitments regarding the conservation of moors, the legal protection of these paramos continues to be uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Runoff processes in glacier and páramo catchments in the Andean region are of interest as they are vitally important to serve the water needs of surrounding communities. Particularly in Northern Ecuador, the runoff processes are less well-known due to the high variability of precipitation, young volcanic ash soil properties, soil moisture dynamics and other local factors. Previous studies have shown that the melting of glaciers contributes to runoff generation and that the páramo ecosystem plays an important role in regulating runoff during periods of low precipitation. Data collection and experimental investigations were carried out in a catchment of 15.2 km2 and altitude ranging between 4000 and 5700 m above sea level. Environmental tracers and hydrochemical catchment characterization were used for identifying runoff sources and their respective contributions during dry and wet conditions. Dry conditions are defined as periods where precipitation was absent for at least three consecutive days and wet conditions imply rainfall events. This study highlights the importance of the páramo on contributing to total runoff during baseflow (70% of total runoff) and the capacity of the páramo to dissipate the stream energy and buffer the peak flow during rainfall conditions. Electrical conductivity together with stable isotopes were identified as conservative tracers that characterize the end-member concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chaetolepis es un pequeño género de 11 especies de arbustos y hierbas de zonas montañosas, en su mayoría neotropicales. Como producto de la revisión de la familia Melastomataceae para el proyecto Flora de Bogotá, se hizo la descripción, ilustración y mapeo de una nueva especie del género y se establecieron las diferencias con especies morfológicamente cercanas.

Copyright of Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales is the property of Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The páramos have a great diversity of flora, including terricolous non-tracheophyte photoautotrophs (bryophytes and lichens). Bryophytes and lichens are very sensitive to environmental changes related to anthropogenic fires, livestock, and agricultural activities. We determined for the first time in Ecuador the effects of prescribed fires on the pyrodiversity of terricolous non-tracheophyte photoautotroph in a páramo of South Ecuador. Three permanent sampling plots (T1, T2, and control) were established, each with a dimension of 4 m × 20 m and separated by 3 m (T1: one with fire-induced uphill and T2: one with fire-induced downhill and one control). They were installed in three different blocks, obtaining a total of nine plots. Three samplings (2, 6, and 12 months) were carried out in each plot, where the cover and richness of terricolous bryophytes and lichens were estimated in 216 quadrats of 20 × 30 cm. A total of 27 species (11 lichens and 16 bryophytes) were studied, where the lichen families, that is, Cladoniaceae and Baeomycetaceae, as well as the bryophytes families, namely, Dicranaceae, Jungermanniaceae, Bartramiaceae, Rhacocarpaceae, and Pallaviciniaceae, have been recorded as pioneers in areas under fire effects. Richness and diversity (calculated using the Shannon–Weaver and Simpson indexes) were affected by fire treatments; on the other hand, monitoring time (M3) positively affected species diversity. The composition of terrestrial non-tracheophyte photoautotroph communities showed slight changes between the control and T1 and T2, but the changes were more marked with time after the burns (M1 vs. M3), related to fire severity. Therefore, terricolous lichen and bryophyte communities (richness and diversity) can be used as model organisms for the assessment of the effects of prescribed fires on tropical páramos for subsequent management and conservation.

Abstract The biodiversity of the high Andean mountains has made it urgent to conserve the Páramos, which are recognized as essential ecosystems for the hydrological cycle and climate change mitigation. Colombia, which has 50% of these ecosystems in the world, has been cartographically delimiting the páramos since 2012 to promote their conservation. For the communities, the maps do not reflect the care work and practices with which they inhabit the páramo on daily life. Through ethnography and documentary review, we make an ontological analysis of the delimitation process and the conflicts it originated in the regions of Santurbán and Sumapaz. We argue that the environmental challenges faced by the high mountain demand the need for a reflexive conservation of its own ontology and to conduct environmental policy from an ontological openness that conceives the páramo as a permanent material composition of situated practices where different ways of making-world intervene.

Con la finalidad de determinar los riesgos de pérdida local de hábitats de líquenes tomando en consideración la migración ascendente de las condiciones ambientales debido al calentamiento previsto para el presente siglo, se realizaron muestreos en el suroeste de los Andes venezolanos, Parque Nacional General Juan Pablo Peñaloza, en un rango de elevación entre los 2000 m (bosque montano) a 3660 m (páramo andino). Después de dos años de exploraciones se registraron 104 especies y 39 géneros, 44 especies en el bosque montano y 82 especies en el páramo. Ante un incremento de 2°C a fin de siglo, los taxones requerirían un desplazamiento ascendente de ~363 m, mientras si se escoge un incremento máximo de 4°C, el desplazamiento sería >725 m. Los resultados indican que el 64% de los géneros estarían amenazados de desaparición local por pérdida de hábitat ante un incremento de temperatura ≤2°C, mientras el 12,8% conservarían su hábitat a pesar de un incremento de 4°C; 81,73% de las especies estarían amenazadas de extinción local por pérdida de hábitat ante un incremento ≤2°C, mientras el 92,3% de las especies perderían su hábitat ante un incremento ≤4°C. En ambos escenarios existiría un riesgo de desaparición masiva.

Sylvilagus andinus (Thomas, 1897) is a highland lagomorph from the Ecuadorean Paramos. Its distribution was tentatively believed to extend to northwestern Peru on the basis of ecological niche modeling and the inclusion of the Peruvian S. capsalis Thomas, 1913 as a synonym. Here, we confirm the occurrence of S. andinus in Peru by a morphological examination of seven new records from northwestern Peru and one new record from Ancash department in central Peru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desde finales del siglo XX, el emblemático oso andino se ha vuelto protagonista de nuevas agendas científicas y políticas de conservación en los Andes colombianos. Este artículo presenta un análisis ontológico, multiespecie e histórico de los encuentros entre diferentes formas de conocer la naturaleza en el páramo de Chingaza, un área protegida al este de la ciudad de Bogotá. Los programas enfocados en la conservación de la única especie de oso descrito por los taxónomos para Sudamérica han generado tensiones con las comunidades campesinas, quienes dan cuenta de la existencia de dos tipos de oso. Sin querer “corregir” a los científicos naturales que descartan esta posibilidad, este artículo pretende abrir posibilidades conceptuales que entienden al oso como una entidad de contacto en un páramo múltiple. Combinando métodos etnográficos e históricos, trazamos las trayectorias más largas y silenciadas detrás de las prácticas que subyacen la conservación del oso andino en Chingaza hoy en día. Observando una reorientación reciente en los diálogos científicos e institucionales con comunidades campesinas, sugerimos un giro hacia una conservación cosmopolítica capaz de articular los mundos campesinos en la alta montaña.

In Colombia in 2016, extraordinary upper mountain ecosystems known as páramos were legally delimited by the central state as strict conservation areas, based exclusively on maps produced with biophysical information. Inside their boundaries, most human activities were forbidden, although most páramos have been inhabited and used for centuries. I interrogate the making of these exclusionary state páramos using the analytic of assemblage. This framework allows me to go beyond the understanding of fields of state control as merely the product of a process of top-down authoritarian territorialisation, and make the practices of heterogeneous subjects around the production of delimited páramos visible. It also helps me investigate what happened to these subjects in the process, and contribute to a critical understanding of their roles in the establishment of conservation areas. I argue that this process had three interrelated outcomes: the state was pushed away from a liberal government of upper mountains, and towards a centralised, authoritarian scheme; scientific practices resisted state power around conservation; and some social organisations became instrumental to a simplifying grand scheme. I propose that the threat of mining extractivism in the 2010s influenced the practices of these three subjects, and catalysed the assemblage of coercively delimited páramos and their exclusion from the productive grid.

Since the end of the 20th century, the emblematic Andean bear has become the protagonist of new scientific and political conservation agendas in the Colombian Andes. This article presents an ontological, multispecies, and historical analysis of the encounters between different forms of knowing nature in the páramo of Chingaza, a protected area east of the city of Bogotá. Programs for the conservation of the only species of bear described by taxonomists in South America have raised tensions with campesino communities who give accounts of the existence of two types of bears. Without seeking to "correct" the natural scientists who discard this possibility, this article aims to open up conceptual possibilities that understand the bear as a contact entity in an also multiple páramo.. Combining ethnographic and historical methods, we trace the longer and silenced trajectories behind the practices that support Andean bear conservation in Chingaza today. Observing a recent reorientation in scientific and institutional dialogues with peasant communities, we suggest a shift towards a 'cosmopolitical' conservation capable of articulating the worlds of the campesinos of the high mountains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Luna Azul is the property of Universidad de Caldas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We address farmers' perceptions of ecosystem services in three Colombian and Venezuelan páramos with the objective of determining their local environmental knowledge and the extent to which their perceptions can help inform public policy. Based on a qualitative approach, particularly interviews with open-ended questions, we identified which ecosystem services are integrated into local culture. Our results show that perceptions of the páramo differed in the three study sites. Farmers in Aquitania municipality (Colombia) assigned greater biological value to the páramo than farmers in Urdaneta municipality (Venezuela), who assigned more value to living space and agricultural production. Finally, farmers in Rangel municipality (Venezuela) placed both biological and social value on the páramo, highlighting a more heterogeneous appreciation of its value. Our research illustrates the need to consider local perceptions is assessing what ecosystem services farmers value in order to inform political decisions with concrete data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En este artículo se presentan un inventario de 653 lagos que suman 1.495 hectáreas (Ha.) ubicados en las tierras altas de la cordillera Central colombiana entre los departamentos de Tolima y Valle del Cauca. El inventario fue realizado en el área delimitada por el gobierno nacional como Complejo de páramos Las Hermosas, a partir del procesamiento de la información cartográfica disponible en IGAC a escala 1:25.000, comparada con una Imagen satelital RapidEye 2009-2010 y otras fuentes secundarias usando Sistemas de Información Geográfica. Como parte del inventario, se analiza la distribución de los lagos por jurisdicciones, cuencas hidrográficas, tamaño y rangos altitudinales. Finalmente, se plantean algunas interpretaciones basadas en las series de datos obtenidos, para concluir con las necesidades de investigación prioritarias y avanzar en el conocimiento de los humedales en el área observada.