Scientific Research
FCT's Don Oso Program is a holistic, long-term approach to conserving the Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus) within and near the southern boundary of Sangay National Park. The Program represents a collaboration between FCT, the Carnivore Coexistence Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, and communities in the Nudo del Azuay. Initiated in 2002, the Don Oso Program includes four major initiatives which engage local landowners and communities in efforts to study and protect the bear: 1) environmental education and bear awareness; 2) scientific research on bear biology; 3) capacity building for locals as para-biologists; and 4) interventions to reduce human/wildlife conflicts.
Currently, twenty motion-activated camera traps have logged over 4,000 pictures of the Andean bear and other fauna in the Nudo del Azuay, which are helping us learn about bear biology and survivorship. Learn more here.
Hydrological monitoring of the lower Paute basin
In late 2009, FCT initiated a hydrological monitoring program in the lower Paute River Basin to investigate how land use affects sediment load and surface water runoff. In collaboration with the Water Fund for Conservation of the Paute River Basin (FONAPA) and the Earth and Environmental Sciences Group (GTCA), we installed hydrological and meteorological water monitoring equipment in four catchments in the Mazar River subwatershed.
This project is one of the first hydrological studies of the area, and we hope to join the data we collect with the results of other studies. To this end, FCT recently joined the regional initiative Hydrological Monitoring in Andean Ecosystems, which compiles water quality monitoring data from throughout the Andes Mountains.
Read more about FCT's hydrological monitoring project here.
Carbon sinks found in páramo grassland soils
The science linking land use/cover to ecosystem services lags behind program implementation, leading to uncertainty whether promoted land uses/covers actually protect or enhance targeted services. While worldwide the majority of carbon-based payment for environmental services projects have focused on afforestation, reforestation, and more recently on avoided deforestation, there is increasing recognition of the need to protect and sustainably manage biodiverse non-forested ecosystems that store large amounts of carbon belowground as soil organic matter. Páramo grasslands are an example of such a system; these ecosystems support impressive levels of endemic plant and animal diversity as well as storing a high amount of soil carbon. Thus, páramos represent important carbon sinks and area in need of conservation.
Since mid-2009, Leah Bremer, candidate for a Ph.D. in Geography at San Diego State University and the University of Santa Barbara, California, USA, has studied soil carbon in different native and non-native montane ecosystems at sites across Ecuador. At the Mazar Wildlife Reserve, she is studying above-ground plant diversity in páramo grasslands in addition to soil carbon. Her preliminary results make a strong case for the increased protection and sustainable management of páramo grasslands given their exceptional capacity for carbon storage and high levels of endemic plant diversity.
Land-use and land cover change between 1956 and 2000
The Nudo del Azuay is an area in transition, with pastures and agricultural areas replacing native tropical montane forest and páramo grasslands. The long-term conservation of this landscape necessitates a clear understanding of threats to the landscape as well as restoration on the part of local land stewards.
FCT began a study of land-use and land cover change in January 2010 with the eventual goal to analyze the rate, extent, and intensity of land use and land cover changes over the past fifty years. We are using aerial photos of the Nudo del Azuay taken during flyovers from 1956 to 2000. Geographer Will Anderson geographically referenced and topographically corrected the photos to create blocks of digital orthophotos, and a FCT technician is manually identifying land cover within each of the photos.
This study of aerial photos allows FCT to analyze changes over a longer time period than satellite images (which are only available beginning in the 1980s), as well as facilitating a more precise identification of land cover types. The results of this analysis will be used to model current and future land cover change scenarios, identify place-specific drivers of degradation as well as recuperation, and relate Andean bear habitat use to information about forest age and composition.
Land use and the hydrological properties of páramo soils
In what ways do changes in above-ground vegetation affect the ability of páramo soils to regulate water storage and flow? For example, if trees are planted or fire regimes altered, how does a soil's hydrologic function respond? Professor Carol Harden and graduate students James Hartsig and Hunter Terrell, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are investigating these questions in the Mazar Wildlife Reserve.
In 2009, the team selected study sites across the MWR with different land-uses. At these sites, they installed rain gauges and sensors that monitor soil moisture changes in real time. They have also measured soil moisture on a fine spatial and temporal scale, sampled soils at different depths to test their water retention capacity, and traced the rate of subsurface water movement through two experimental plots, one in non-native pine trees and another in native páramo grasses.
Preliminary results show that soils under pine stands are drier and have more variable moisture contents than soils under native páramo grasses, and also that they have a lesser capacity to store water. Although further analysis remains to be done, these initial results suggest that soil-water relationships in páramo soils differ between native and non-native vegetative cover.