Abstract
The La Antigua river upper watershed (1,325 km2), located on the eastern slopes of the Cofre de Perote-Pico de Orizaba volcano (central Veracruz, Mexico), is a region of high biodiversity and great hydrological importance. The watershed plays a key role supplying water to main urban areas, such as the capital of Veracruz (Xalapa) and Coatepec, and providing downstream water for agricultural purposes and local fisheries, among others. The tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) is a high value ecosystem because of the hydrological services it provides. Although many of the forests in this region have been disturbed or converted to crops and grasslands (112 km2) in the last 30 years, the hydrological effects of these changes at the catchment scale are still largely unknown, particularly in the case of the Mexican TMCF. This chapter addresses this knowledge gap by studying three headwater catchments (<50 ha) covered with, respectively, old-growth TMCF, 20-year old regenerating TMCF, and pasture, with the following objectives: 1) to evaluate the hydrological effects of TMCF disturbance and its conversion to pasture, with emphasis on annual and seasonal distribution of streamflow (baseflow and stormflow), and 2) to determine the effects of land use on stream-suspended solids exportation. The study period covered two years (2005–2007) during which continuous rainfall and streamflow data were collected. The results showed a higher stormflow (run-off produced by rainfall) in the regenerating forest and pasture (4.5 and 6.2 per cent of the rainfall, respectively) as compared with the old-growth forest (2.2 per cent), most likely because of a combination of lower canopy water interception and reduced soil infiltration. Nevertheless, the stormflow values observed across the different land cover types were very low (<6 per cent of rainfall) as a result of the very high infiltration capacity of the volcanic soil. The bedrock characteristics underlying the catchments appeared to be a key factor controlling their annual streamflow, particularly the baseflow. The pasture stream showed the highest concentrations of total suspended solids (10 mg l-1) compared with the forests (3.2 mg l-1), presumably due to higher surface run-off causing soil erosion. It is concluded that the TMCF disturbance and conversion to pasture modifies the eco-hydrological functioning of the catchments. However, the results also suggest that 20 years of natural regeneration following cloud forest disturbance in eastern Mexico is capable of producing near-original hydrological behaviour.
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Villers, L.E.M., Equihua, M., Tobón, C., Mendieta, F.J.G. (2012). Effects of Land Use in the Hydrology of Montane Catchments in Central-eastern Mexico. In: Oswald Spring, Ú. (eds) Water Resources in Mexico. Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, vol 7. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-05432-7_11
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