Nitrification is part of the nitrogen cycle that occurs naturally in ecosystems. It is related to the presence of microorganisms and their metabolism, especially bacteria, which are involved in oxidizing compounds such as NH4+ and NO2− to NO3&m...
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a crucial component of the planet and is essential for agriculture development. Our region is known for its livestock and agricultural activities. Hence, understanding the spatial distribution of SOC is crucial for sustai...
The current study aims to analyze the fundamental ecological niches of five páramo species in the high Andean zones of South America. Hereby, the research focuses on the typical flora species of this ecosystem, such as Azorella aretioides, Azo...
Water infiltration into soil is a key process in regulating the hydrological cycle and sustaining ecosystem services in high-Andean environments. However, limited information is available regarding its dynamics in these ecosystems. This study evaluat...
The High Andean region of Peru, characterized by a complex orography, has unique and highly biodiverse ecosystems. This region has several headwater basins that play a critical role in the hydrological cycle, providing diverse ecosystem services esse...
This study investigates the relationship between land use and soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in tropical Andean ecosystems, introducing a socio-ecological perspective to assess how community conservation perceptions influence SOC storage and contr...
Highland Andean ecosystems sustain high levels of floral and faunal biodiversity in areas with diverse topography and provide varied ecosystem services, including the supply of water to cities and downstream agricultural valleys. Google (™) has...
Soils are a valuable renewable resource on human timescales, and they interact with distinctive grassland ecosystems characterized by unique biodiversity and essential provision of ecosystem services, such as water supply and carbon sequestration. Ho...
Andean high-altitude ecosystems are critical to sustaining biodiversity, agriculture, and the livelihoods of indigenous populations. However, accelerating glacier retreat, irregular precipitation, and intensive water use have exacerbated ecosystem de...
High Andean salares and their surrounding basins host unique ecosystems and rich biodiversity. Increasing global demand for lithium and brines in these environments have attracted significant international investment, raising both economic expectatio...
Natural ecosystems are declining and fragmenting globally at unprecedented rates. Fragmentation of natural ecosystems leads to decline in functions and services with severe impact on people. In Ecuador, despite establishment of the nationwide ecosyst...
Models can help to explain the main interactions, magnitudes, and velocity by which biological processes accumulate soil organic carbon (SOC) in pastures. An explanatory model using Insight Maker software was constructed for each soil under natural a...
In the Peruvian Andes, water infiltration from tropical wetlands, called páramo, generates headwaters for downstream rivers. The hydrological processes of these wetlands are not well understood within the larger hydrological system, impeding efforts...
In the face of ongoing anthropogenic climate change, river water quality assessment has become increasingly important for maintaining ecological balance and supporting local and downstream livelihoods. This research aims to create a new water quality...
Socio-ecological dynamics affect the ecosystem services supply and are relevant to generate effective water management strategies; this condition is considered to evaluate under a holistic approach, the water ecosystem services (WES) in an Andean sup...
The transformation of natural ecosystems due to anthropogenic land use is considered one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. Lichens, due to their poikilohydric nature, are very sensitive to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Therefore, lic...
Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a crucial role in climate change mitigation by regulating atmospheric CO2 and maintaining ecosystem balance; however, its stability is influenced by land use in anthropized areas such as the tropical Andes. This study...
The scarcity of information that allows for understanding the importance of natural resources from an economic approach is often a limitation to establishing parameters related to environmental investment in conservation plans. This study proposes a...
Phacelia secunda J.F. Gmel. (Boraginaceae) is a widely distributed insect-pollinated perennial herb. In central Chile (33° S), it occurs from the sea level up to 3600 m in the Andes, exhibiting broad morphological variation. In this study, we dev...
Ecosystem services contribute significantly to human development, with water production being a crucial component. Climate and land use changes can impact water availability within a basin. In this context, researching water-related areas is essentia...
The Andean Páramo is an environment known for its high biodiversity; however, due to its remote location and difficult access, it is still relatively poorly studied. The aim of this work was to explore the fungal biodiversity of Ecuadorian P&a...
Globally, ecosystem services face significant degradation due to land use and land cover change (LULC) driven by human development. Despite numerous habitat quality assessments, comprehensive studies in high-mountain equatorial region basins remain s...
Lake Chinchaycocha, Peru’s second-largest high-altitude lake and a Ramsar-designated wetland of international importance, is increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pollution and hydroclimatic shifts. This study integrates Sentinel-2 multispec...
This study analyzes forest fire legislation and policies in the Andean Community of Nations (ACN)—Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia—focusing on prevention and control. Using a comparative law approach, similarities, differences, and im...
Periurban forests are key to offsetting anthropogenic carbon emissions, but they are under constant threat from urbanization. In particular, secondary Neotropical forest types in Andean periurban areas have a high potential to store carbon, but are c...
The conservation and monitoring of land cover represent crucial elements for sustainable regional development, especially in fragile high Andean ecosystems. This study evaluates the spatiotemporal changes in land use and land cover (LULC) in the Locu...
High Andean forests are biodiversity hotspots that also play key roles in the provisioning of vital ecosystem services for neighboring cities. In past centuries, the hinterland of Andean fast-growing cities often experienced a dramatic decline in for...
Submerged macrophytes promote water clarity in shallow lakes in temperate regions via zooplankton refuge, allelopathy, and nutrient competition with phytoplankton, thereby increasing zooplankton grazing. However, in high-altitude Andean ecosystems, t...
The Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita) is one of the most endangered and least known wild cat species in the Americas and the world in general. We describe new records of the Andean cat in the central Andes of Chile, in Parque Andino Juncal, obtained as...
Cultural customs often condition solid waste management, especially in developing countries. The decomposition of solid waste depends on climatic conditions and is related to geomorphology and anthropogenic practices. Leachate generated in landfills...
Conventional agricultural practices, such as the use of agrochemicals, implementation of monocultures, and the expansion of crops in strategic ecosystems, have significant impacts in Andean basins, directly increasing nutrient inputs to waterways, an...
High-elevation tropical streams are under increasing threat from human activities and climate change. Specifically, Ecuadorian Andean streams require priority actions such as bioassessment (e.g., biodiversity and functional ecology of macroinvertebra...
Andean ecosystems provide important ecosystem services including streamflow regulation and carbon sequestration, services that are controlled by the water retention properties of the soils. Even though these soils have been historically altered by pi...
Understanding of evapotranspiration (ET) processes over Andean mountain environments is crucial, particularly due to the importance of these regions to deliver water-related ecosystem services. In this context, the detection of spatio-temporal change...
Peltigera lichens can colonize extreme habitats, such as high-elevation ecosystems, but their biodiversity is still largely unknown in these environments, especially in the southern hemi- sphere. We assessed the genetic diversity of mycobionts and cy...
High-Andean lakes are strategic freshwater ecosystems whose monitoring is essential for effective water resource management. However, their optical complexity limits the applicability of conventional methods. In this study, the water quality conditio...
Exact knowledge of the physical structures of different river sections that govern their ecological structure and function is essential for the efficient conservation and management of riverine ecosystems. Eleven Andean river basins (Maipo, Rapel, Ma...
Andean grassland ecosystems in Peru are characterized by diverse plant species adapted to environmental factors including weather, soil type, elevation, slope orientation, and soil moisture. This study evaluated the floristic composition, alpha diver...
Fire is a process of disturbance of natural ecosystems that can be used for land management and soil preparation for agricultural purposes, but can also drastically affect biodiversity and the distribution and abundance of species by changing land us...
Hydropower development is rapidly expanding in biodiversity-rich regions like the Ecuadorian Andes, raising major concerns about its ecological impacts. This study evaluates fish species composition and habitat characteristics in the Cristal and Dulc...
Accurate estimation of aboveground biomass (AGB) is essential for monitoring forage availability and guiding sustainable management in high-altitude pastures, where grazing sustains livelihoods but also drives ecological degradation. Although remote...
The Peruvian creole cattle (PCC) is a neglected breed and an essential livestock resource in the Andean region of Peru. To develop a modern breeding program and conservation strategies for the PCC, a better understanding of the genetics of this breed...
The impact of drought on vessel architecture and function has been broadly assessed for a variety of tree species in the last decades, but the hydraulic plasticity under temperature increase has scarcely been studied. The effect of drought on tree-ri...
This study assessed the water quality and ecological integrity of the Columbe River micro-watershed in the Ecuadorian Andes through a multidimensional approach incorporating biotic, physicochemical, and structural indices. Indices such as the Andean...
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Although Colombia was one of the first tropical countries where an effort was made to gather mycological flora, contributions to the taxonomy, diversity, and ecology of soil microfungi are still scarce. In this study, the diversity of soil microfungi...
In recent decades, global ecosystems have increasingly faced impacts from heightened precipitation variability. Specifically, water availability is an essential factor in wetland dynamics and has ecological importance in the high-Andean wetlands in b...
Roadsides are common ecosystems worldwide, with specific environmental characteristics and multiple effects on plant diversity. As such, they represent examples of highly dynamic anthropogenic ecosystems. Our objective was to assess patterns of vascu...
Documenting temporal trends in the extent of ecosystems is essential to monitoring their status but combining this information with the degree of protection helps us assess the effectiveness of societal actions for conserving ecosystem diversity and...
The demography and behaviour of Teinopodagrion oscillans was studied in a protected area in the Andean region of Colombia. Adult damselflies were individually marked, and using their recapture histories, we estimated survival, longevity, sex ratio, a...
The high-Andean grasslands of Peru provide a wide range of goods and services, not only locally, but also regionally and globally. However, land-use change and global warming are threatening these ecosystems, of which soil organic carbon (SOC) is a k...
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