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The recovery of the lower montane cloud forest in the Mucujún watershed, Mérida, Venezuela

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Abstract

High deforestation rates in tropical countries continue to reduce forest cover and thereby habitat quantity and quality. However, in some places the forest is recovering and expanding thus offsetting the biodiversity and ecosystem service losses. In order to characterize the forest recovery, land use and land cover (LUC) changes were analyzed using aerial photographs, taken between 1952 and 2009, of a peri-urban watershed in the Andes region of Venezuela. The qualities of the changes were assessed using landscape indices and hemeroby indicators. In that period, the forest cover increased about 18 %, mainly due to abandoned pastures on steep slopes. At the same time, the urban area expanded about 4 % on valley bottoms, while pastures and crop fields were reduced about 20 %. The results also showed that forest patches were aggregating, whereas pastures were fragmenting. A reduction in direct human impacts on forests growing on abandoned pastures resulted in a slight recovery of the lower montane cloud forest structure and plant composition. But non-native species were found in all LUC categories. During the study period, we documented not only forest recovery, but also urban area growth, intensified land use and invasions by non-native species all of which could partially counterbalance the positives of forest recovery.

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Acknowledgments

The study was possible with the support from the Fundación Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho (FUNDAYACUCHO) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Verband der Freunde der Universität Freiburg i. Br., the International Ph.D. Programme “Forestry in Transition” of the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences of the University of Freiburg, and the Universidad de Los Andes. The authors gratefully acknowledge the personal of the Jardín Botánico de la Facultad de Ciencias of the Universidad de los Andes, Gerardo Avendaño and Darwin Gutierrez for the support during the visual interpretation and sampling. We are very thankful for the supportive comments received by two anonymous reviewers. We thank Bernhard Thiel for improving the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo Forestal, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Ambientales, Universidad de Los Andes, Vía Chorros de Milla, Conjunto Forestal, Mérida, 5101, Venezuela

    Néstor Gutiérrez B.

  2. Chair of Vegetation Science and Site Classification, Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Néstor Gutiérrez B., Stefanie Gärtner & Albert Reif

  3. Laboraorio de Fotogrametria y Sensores Remotos, Escuela de Ingeniería, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Ambientales, Universidad de Los Andes, Vía Chorros de Milla, Conjunto Forestal, Mérida, 5101, Venezuela

    Juan Y. López H.

  4. Escuela Técnica Superior Forestal, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales y Ambientales, Universidad de Los Andes, Vía Chorros de Milla, Conjunto Forestal, Mérida, 5101, Venezuela

    Carlos E. Pacheco

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  1. Néstor Gutiérrez B.
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Gutiérrez B., N., Gärtner, S., López H., J.Y. et al. The recovery of the lower montane cloud forest in the Mucujún watershed, Mérida, Venezuela. Reg Environ Change 13, 1069–1085 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0413-y

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