Managing Tropical Andean Ecohydrology Under Environmental Change

Abstract:

The tropical Andes are a global hotspot for a plethora of ecosystem services, including biodiversity, water supply, agricultural production, and scenic beauty. Many of these services are suffering degradation resulting from stressors ranging from localized land-use changes to global climate change. The high-altitudinal páramo grasslands are a case in point. Known for their unique landscape, high and reliable water supply, and high endemism of plant and animal species, its ecohydrology is a key provider of environmental services to the Andean populations. Drawing upon a long-standing research experience in the páramo region and related biomes, this presentation reflects upon some of the challenges and opportunities for managing the ecohydrology of the páramo and related tropical Andean biomes to safeguard their conservation, and the benefits they provide to local populations and wider humankind.

A first challenge relates to the still limited scientific understanding of ecohydrological processes such as the extreme hydrological buffering capacity, soil-plant interactions, and biogeochemistry. Several new technologies and methods hold promise here, such as pervasive hydrometeorological sensor networks, satellite missions such as GPM and PLEIADES, and isotopic analysis, among others.

Next, quantifying and predicting the impact of internal and external perturbations is still riddled with uncertainties that can only be improved by fundamentally rethinking the way that process knowledge and observations are queried, combined, and used for scenario analysis and prediction.

Lastly, even if catchment management strategies are found that optimise the benefit for humankind, implementing them will prove challenging. The complexity of the Andean social-ecological systems gives rise to diverging interests and policy agendas between different stakeholders. Finding consensus and implementing best practices is not just a matter of generating a relevant science-base, but also understanding the region’s science-policy interface and dynamics.