Páramos are the almost literal lifeblood of many regions in Central and South America and they’re currently under attack. This is why TU Delft PhD graduate Veronica Graciela Minaya Maldonado decided to focus on one of them for her doctoral thesis.
These unique grasslands typically consist of high altitude plateaus. While they may seem barren in comparison to the tropical rainforests that can be found elsewhere across the Americas, they actually support hundreds of species of plants and animals. They also perform vital duties like sustaining regional biodiversity by providing water storage and absorbing carbon. Unfortunately, socio-economics have put many páramos in danger.
“They’re threatened by many different things,” Minaya Maldonado said. “First, is a change in values. The surrounding communities have cleared them for agriculture. They’re also impacted by mining, cattle ranching, the opening of highways and other things that degrade the ecosystem.”
Minaya Maldonado, who conducted her research in the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, spent 4.5 years studying an alpine páramo in her native country of Ecuador. One of her goals was to help create a better understanding of the grasslands and offer a broader ecosystem analysis. There’s currently a lack of understanding of how exactly their water, soil, vegetation and surrounding atmosphere all work together. Minaya Maldonado explored the biodiversity of a test site during her fieldwork in northern Ecuador where she often encountered soggy conditions and at least one temperamental cow that didn’t quite approve of her project.
Despite these challenges, she examined carbon levels in the three most prominent plants in the area and studied how water flows into the region via rainfall and runoff from a nearby glacier. This enabled her to pin down more specific statistics in Biome-BGC, a computer programme that estimates the storage and flux of carbon, nitrogen and water in vegetation and soil components. After creating a hydrological representation of runoff processes in the páramo, she gathered her research and final results together to determine the spatial distribution of how all of its components collaborate to create an effective and diverse ecosystem.
Minaya Maldonado’s findings also showed how these processes can vary based on altitude and vegetation. She hopes that the results can be used to further improve land use strategies for páramos, convey their importance to regional leaders and encourage the development of better environmental policies for their protection.
Minaya Maldonado, V.G., Ecohydrology of the Andes Páramo Region, Promoters: Mynett, A.E., Defence: December 20, 2016
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