Efectos de la restauración de los bosques montanos tropicales sobre el funcionamiento ecohidrológico de cuencas hidrográficas

Abstract

At the global level, ecological restoration is becoming increasingly important, given the degraded conditions of ecosystems and, therefore, the urgent need to recover these ecosystems and reestablish ecosystem services and forest biodiversity. Specifically, tropical forests have been degrading at accelerated rates, to date there are very few studies that have evaluated the effects of forest restoration programs on soil properties and ecohydrological functioning of tropical ecosystems. The objective of this research was to evaluate the ecohydrological processes in low montane moist forest (bh-MB) watersheds subjected to ecological restoration (El Silencio and Montañita), compared to one with pastures (Pastos), and to characterize the variables that determine these processes in the emerging ecosystems. In each watershed, climatic variables were monitored, and the physical, hydraulic and organic matter properties of the soil and ecohydrological variables were measured. The results indicate that the watersheds under the restoration program show a tendency to recover the initial conditions of soil properties, which favors the regulation of summer flows and reduces storm flows; while the pasture watershed shows a tendency to degraded soils. It is concluded that the natural regeneration process of the forest in areas dedicated to extensive cattle raising contributes to improve the physical conditions of the soil, which favors the recharge of water to the aquifers and sustains the base flow in times of low precipitation.