Frontiers in páramo water resources research: A multidisciplinary assessment

作者：Giovanny M. Mosquera, Robert Hofstede, Leah L. Bremer, Heidi Asbjornsen, Aldemar Carabajo-Hidalgo, Rolando Célleri, Patricio Crespo, Germain Esquivel‐Hernández, Jan Feyen, Rossana Manosalvas, Franklin Marín, Patricio Mena-Vásconez, Paola Montenegro‐Díaz, Ana Ochoa‐Sánchez, Juan Pesántez, Diego Riveros‐Iregui, Esteban Suárez · 发表于：The Science of The Total Environment · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164373 · 被引用次数：37 · 研究领域：Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond、Fish biology, ecology, and behavior、Water Governance and Infrastructure

Interdisciplinary knowledge is necessary to achieve sustainable management of natural resources. However, research is still often developed in an exclusively disciplinary manner, hampering the capacity to holistically address environmental issues. This study focuses on páramo, a group of high-elevation ecosystems situated around ∼3000 to ∼5000 m a.s.l. in the Andes from western Venezuela and northern Colombia through Ecuador down to northern Peru, and in the highlands of Panama and Costa Rica in Central America. Páramo is a social-ecological system that has been inhabited and shaped by human activity since ∼10,000 years BP. This system is highly valued for the water-related ecosystem services provided to millions of people because it forms the headwaters of major rivers in the Andean-Amazon region, including the Amazon River. We present a multidisciplinary assessment of peer-reviewed research on the abiotic (physical and chemical), biotic (ecological and ecophysiological), and social-political aspects and elements of páramo water resources. A total of 147 publications were evaluated through a systematic literature review process. We found that thematically 58, 19, and 23 % of the analyzed studies are related to the abiotic, biotic, and social-political aspects of páramo water resources, respectively. Geographically, most publications were developed in Ecuador (71 % of the synthesized publications). From 2010 onwards, the understanding of hydrological processes including preci...