Dr France Gerard announces the start of an exciting three-year project called PARAGUAS, a collaboration between UK and Colombian researchers to investigate how plants and people influence the water storage capacity of the P谩ramos, an important mountain biome found in the Northern Andean regions...
In June 2018 the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) jointly awarded funding to five UK projects under the Newton-Caldas funded . Shortly after, the Colombian Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (Colciencias) awarded funding to 24 smaller Colombian projects under the same programme.
Our project PARAGUAS - "How do the P谩ramos store water? The role of plants and people" is one of the five UK-funded projects.
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Introducing PARAGUAS
PARAGUAS is a three-year project that will study P谩ramos in Colombia: it will investigate how the diversity of habitats and plants found within the P谩ramos contribute to water regulation and provision and how local inhabitants interact with a particular P谩ramo. It started officially on 1 August 2018.
A two-day meeting held at CEH鈥檚 Wallingford site (Oxfordshire, UK) on 27 and 28 September 2018 and a one-day meeting at the Humboldt Institute in Bogot谩, Colombia on 8th October 2018 brought our project team together for the first time, kick-starting PARAGUAS. The meetings gave the team the opportunity to get to know each other and discuss the project plan in detail.
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Meet the team
Our PARAGUAS team is multi-disciplinary and covers expertise in:
- botany and plant functional traits (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew),
- plant physiology, soil biochemistry and hydrology (CEH and Imperial College London),
- InSAR satellite and hyperspectral drone remote sensing (University of Nottingham and CEH),
- Arts and Humanities, specifically water-usage practices and storytelling (University of Bristol and Loughborough University),
- ecosystem service valuation (University of Edinburgh).
Our Colombian partners provide invaluable local knowledge and expertise including:
- specific proficiency in working in the Gu谩ntiva-La Rusia complex (Universidad Pedagogica y Tecnologica de Colombia (UPTC),
- an understanding of the area鈥檚 ecology, and environmental and social pressures (UPTC),
- expertise in P谩ramo botany and plant functional types and in monitoring using novel technologies (Instituto de Investigacion de Recursos Biol贸gicos Alexander von Humboldt),
- expertise in P谩ramo hydrology (National University of Colombia),
- expertise in national scale environmental monitoring and mapping (Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies).
What are P谩ramos?
P谩ramos are unique and highly diverse high mountain grassland-peatland biomes found in the Northern Andean regions, covering a total area of 35,700km2. They are found in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru and are crucial for the livelihoods and wellbeing of millions of people. They are important spiritual landscapes, are the main source of water in these regions and are used for crop cultivation and grazing. They also contain a unique source of untapped genetic diversity.
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While the P谩ramos have the potential to support local and regional development, through the exploitation of its biodiversity, the combined pressure of land use and climate change has already degraded many P谩ramo areas and their potential demise is a cause for concern for many, including local communities, regional and national policy and decision makers and researchers. All agree that any future exploitation requires a sustainable approach and that the management of these systems should enhance the P谩ramo鈥檚 resilience to climate change.
The combined pressure of land use and climate change has already degraded many P谩ramo areas and their potential demise is a cause for concern for many...
There is still very much which is not known about the functioning of the P谩ramos and without this knowledge there is a risk that interventions which are designed to achieve sustainability and enhance resilience are not effective or, worse, are detrimental.
A complex system
P谩ramos are described as sponges that capture and store water from the atmosphere. But few quantitative studies have investigated the mechanisms behind this process and even less is known about the relative role of the plants and the soil of this complex system. Also, P谩ramos are socio-ecological systems that have been shaped by the human populations that have inhabited them over several centuries. This interaction is continuing, with some local communities relying solely on the P谩ramo for their livelihoods.
PARAGUAS will establish how the diversity of habitats and of plants within the P谩ramos contributes to water regulation, via direct storage in live and dead vegetation and via the supply of organic matter in the soil. The project will also identify how local P谩ramo inhabitants, particularly crop and livestock farmers, interact currently with the P谩ramo ecosystem through their day-to-day farming practices.