scholarly journals Traditional ecological knowledge and biodiversity management in the Andes of southern Ecuador

2006 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pohle ◽  
A. Gerique
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Rainforest ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Biodiversity Management ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Tropical Mountain ◽  
Southern Ecuador

Abstract. The tropical mountain rainforests of the eastern Andean slopes in southern Ecuador have an extraordinary rich biodiversity. At the same time. these sensitive ecosystems are vulnerable because of the extension of agricultural land, the extraction of timber, mining activities, the tapping of water resources and similar anthropogenic intrusions. Ethno-specific knowledge of the tropical rainforest ecosystem was determined in sample communities of the Shuar, the Saraguros and the Mestizo-Colonos – particularly with respect to the natural forest resources and their uses. Ethnoecological and agrogeographical research methods were used to document the indigenous knowledge of traditionally utilized wild and eultivated plants, to analyze current forms of land use (including the traditional cultivation of forest and home gardens), and to evaluate ethno-specific survival strategies and strategies of biodiversity management.

scholarly journals Atmospheric salt deposition in a tropical mountain rainforest at the eastern Andean slopes of south Ecuador – Pacific or Atlantic origin?

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (15) ◽  
pp. 10241-10261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandro Makowski Giannoni ◽  
Katja Trachte ◽  
Ruetger Rollenbeck ◽  
Lukas Lehnert ◽  
Julia Fuchs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Salt ◽  
Equatorial Atlantic ◽  
Concentration Data ◽  
Air Masses ◽  
Salt Deposition ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Tropical Mountain ◽  
Southern Ecuador ◽  
Sea Salt Deposition

Abstract. Sea salt (NaCl) has recently been proven to be of the utmost importance for ecosystem functioning in Amazon lowland forests because of its impact on herbivory, litter decomposition and, thus, carbon cycling. Sea salt deposition should generally decline as distance from its marine source increases. For the Amazon, a negative east–west gradient of sea salt availability is assumed as a consequence of the barrier effect of the Andes Mountains for Pacific air masses. However, this generalized pattern may not hold for the tropical mountain rainforest in the Andes of southern Ecuador. To analyse sea salt availability, we investigated the deposition of sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl−), which are good proxies of sea spray aerosol. Because of the complexity of the terrain and related cloud and rain formation processes, sea salt deposition was analysed from both, rain and occult precipitation (OP) along an altitudinal gradient over a period between 2004 and 2009. To assess the influence of easterly and westerly air masses on the deposition of sodium and chloride over southern Ecuador, sea salt aerosol concentration data from the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis data set and back-trajectory statistical methods were combined. Our results, based on deposition time series, show a clear difference in the temporal variation of sodium and chloride concentration and Na+ ∕ Cl− ratio in relation to height and exposure to winds. At higher elevations, sodium and chloride present a higher seasonality and the Na+ ∕ Cl− ratio is closer to that of sea salt. Medium- to long-range sea salt transport exhibited a similar seasonality, which shows the link between our measurements at high elevations and the sea salt synoptic transport. Although the influence of the easterlies was predominant regarding the atmospheric circulation, the statistical analysis of trajectories and hybrid receptor models revealed a stronger impact of the north equatorial Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific sea salt sources on the atmospheric sea salt concentration in southern Ecuador. The highest concentration in rain and cloud water was found between September and February when air masses originated from the north equatorial Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and the equatorial Pacific. Together, these sources accounted for around 82.4 % of the sea salt budget over southern Ecuador.

scholarly journals Atmospheric salt deposition in a tropical mountain rain forest at the eastern Andean slopes of South Ecuador – Pacific or Atlantic origin?

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (19) ◽  
pp. 27177-27218
Author(s):  
S. Makowski Giannoni ◽  
K. Trachte ◽  
R. Rollenbeck ◽  
L. Lehnert ◽  
J. Fuchs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rain Forest ◽  
Sea Salt ◽  
Salt Transport ◽  
Air Masses ◽  
Salt Deposition ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Tropical Mountain ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Southern Ecuador ◽  
Tropical Mountain Rain Forest

Abstract. Salt (NaCl) is recently proven to be of highest importance for ecosystem functioning of the Amazon lowland forests because of its importance for herbivory, litter decomposition and thus, carbon cycling. Salt deposition should generally decline with distance from its marine sources. For tropical South America, a negative east-west salt availability gradient is assumed in the Amazon as a consequence of the barrier effect of the Andes for Pacific air masses. However, this generalized pattern may not hold for the tropical mountain rain forest in the Andes of southern Ecuador. To analyze salt availability, we investigate the deposition of Na+ and Cl- which are good proxies of sea spray aerosol. Because of the complexity of the terrain and related cloud and rain formation processes, salt deposition was analyzed from both, rain and occult precipitation (OP) water along an altitudinal gradient over a period from 2004 to 2009. To assess the influence of Atlantic and Pacific air masses on the locally observed deposition of sodium and chloride, sea-salt aerosol concentration data from the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis dataset and back-trajectory statistical methods were combined. Our results based on deposition time series and 2192 generated trajectories show a clear difference in the temporal variation of sodium and chloride concentration due to height and exposure to winds. The sea-salt transport was highly seasonal where higher locations revealed a stronger seasonality. Although the influence of the easterlies were predominant regarding atmospheric circulation, the statistical analysis of trajectories and hybrid receptor models revealed a stronger impact of the Pacific sea-salt sources on the deposition at the study area. The highest concentration in rain and cloud water was found between September and February originating from both, the equatorial Pacific and Atlantic. However, the Pacific sources contributed with up to 25 % to the observed total concentration of Na+ and Cl- at the receptor site although the frequency of occurrence of the respective trajectories is below 10 %. This highlights the great importance of westerly winds from the Pacific for the sea-salt transport to the deposition into the tropical mountain forests at the eastern Andean slopes of southern Ecuador.

Traditional water knowledge: challenges and opportunities to build resilience to urban floods

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rumana Asad ◽  
Iftekhar Ahmed ◽  
Josephine Vaughan ◽  
Jason von Meding
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Global South ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Water Values

Purpose Urban flooding in developing countries of the Global South is growing due to extreme rainfall and sea-level rise induced by climate change, as well as the proliferation of impervious, built-up areas resulting from unplanned urbanisation and development. Continuous loss of traditional knowledge related to local water management practices, and the de-valuing of such knowledge that goes hand-in-hand with globalised aspirations, is inhibiting flood resilience efforts. This paper aims to address the need to include traditional water knowledge (TWK) in urban living and development processes in the Global South. Design/methodology/approach This paper commences with a review of existing frameworks that focus on natural resource management, critically assessing two existing frameworks of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). The assessment of the existing approaches contributes to this paper’s development of a novel framework to promote TWK with regard to resilience and risk reduction, specifically for developing flood adaptive strategies, which is the second stage of this paper. Finally, the paper explains how the framework can contribute to the field of urban design and planning using examples from the literature to demonstrate challenges and opportunities related to the adaptation of such a framework. Findings The framework developed in this paper reveals three proposed vertices of TWK, named as place-based landscape knowledge, water use and management and water values. This framework has the potential to produce context-specific knowledge that can contribute to flood-resilient built-environment through urban design and practices. Research limitations/implications The framework developed in this paper reveals three proposed vertices of TWK, named place-based landscape knowledge, water use and management and water values. This framework has the potential to produce context-specific knowledge that can contribute to flood-resilient built-environment through urban design and practices. Originality/value Within the field of TEK research, very few researchers have explored the field of developing flood resilience in an urban context. The proposed TWK framework presented in this paper will help to fill that gap.

Obsidian in Southern Ecuador: The Carboncillo Source

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis E. Ogburn
Keyword(s):  
Economic Organization ◽  
Geochemical Analysis ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Far North ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Southern Ecuador ◽  
High Level ◽  
Northern Highlands

AbstractThe Carboncillo area in the southern highlands of Ecuador is identified as the only confirmed source of archaeological obsidian located in the country outside of the northern highlands and is the first identified in the large gap between the known Ecuadorian and Peruvian sources. With the identification of this source, it can no longer be assumed that all obsidian found in Ecuador came from sources in the northern highlands. Thus the Carboncillo source has significant implications for interpreting patterns of long-distance exchange in the Andes, especially in southern Ecuador and the far north of Peru. A geochemical analysis of the Carboncillo material shows that it can be easily distinguished from the obsidian from other Ecuadorian sources. A provenance study of archaeological obsidian samples from the southern highlands of Ecuador using x-ray fluorescence demonstrates that the Carboncillo obsidian was used at the Preceramic site of Chobshi Cave and at a number of late prehispanic sites in the Saraguro region. The results indicate a high level of sociopolitical and economic isolation in late prehistory, most likely tied to a preoccupation with warfare between neighboring groups, and provide additional evidence that the economic organization of the southern highlands differed markedly from that of the north during this time.

A new species of cat-eyed snake (Serpentes: Dipsadinae: Leptodeirini) from the Andes of southern Ecuador

Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4895 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-380
Author(s):  
OMAR TORRES-CARVAJAL ◽  
JUAN C. SÁNCHEZ-NIVICELA ◽  
VALENTINA POSSE ◽  
ELVIS CELI ◽  
CLAUDIA KOCH
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Genetic Distances ◽  
Dna Sequence Data ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Southern Ecuador ◽  
Morphological And Molecular Data ◽  
A New Species

Leptodeira is one of the most widespread and taxonomically problematic snake taxa in the Americas. Here we describe a new species of Leptodeira from the Andes of southern Ecuador based on morphological and molecular data. The new species is geographically close and morphologically similar to L. ornata and L. larcorum, from which it can be distinguished by having smaller dorsal body blotches, a longer tail, and shorter spines on the hemipenial body. The shortest genetic distances between the new species and its congeners are 0.02 (16S), 0.05 (cytb), and 0.18 (ND4). The new species is restricted to the Jubones River Basin in southern Ecuador, an area of endemism for other reptile species. Our phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data also supports recognition of the names L. larcorum (restricted to Peru) for “L. septentrionalis larcorum”, and L. ornata for populations of “L. s. ornata” from central and eastern Panama, western Colombia, and western Ecuador. However, some samples of “L. s. ornata” from Panama and Costa Rica, as well as the new species described herein, are not included within or more closely related to L. ornata, which is sister to the clade (L. bakeri, L. ashmeadii). 

Five new Penaincisalia species (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Eumaeini) from the Andes of southern Ecuador and northern Peru

Zootaxa ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 797 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON P.W. HALL ◽  
KEITH R. WILLMOTT ◽  
ROBERT C. BUSBY
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Southern Ecuador ◽  
Northern Peru

Five new species of Penaincisalia (Lycaenidae: Eumaeini) are described from the high Andes of southern Ecuador and northern Peru: P. caeruleanota Hall & Willmott n. sp., P. juliae Hall & Willmott n. sp., P. andreae Busby & Hall n. sp., P. libertada Hall n. sp. and P. ismaeli Busby & Hall n. sp.. We present brief discussions on their systematic placement within the genus and on their adult ecology.

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