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Shifting maize cultivation and secondary vegetation in the Southern Yucatán: successional forest impacts of temporal intensification

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Abstract

Shifting cultivation around the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve of Mexico, part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, appears to be intensifying temporally through reductions in crop–fallow cycles, with potential impacts on species diversity in the regenerating forest patches surrounding the reserve. This paper documents the temporal intensity of shifting maize cultivation in the region and links it to the species diversity found in secondary vegetation of different ages following different crop–fallow cycles. It finds that younger secondary growth, which is increasing under intensification, has less diversity in species composition. Simultaneously, the concentration of cultivation practices appears to foster more patches in older and more species-diverse vegetation. The implications for the preservation of the region’s forest remain uncertain, however, given the spatial concentration of open lands along two key axes, one which dissects the reserve.

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Acknowledgments

I thank B. L. Turner II, Deborah Lawrence, Hans Vester, Rebecca Dickson and Mirna Canul Montañez for their comments on previous drafts. Special thanks go to Dalia Hoil Villalobos who assisted me with species counts in secondary forest and to the kind farmers in the SY who put up with long hours of interviewing. I also thank two anonymous reviews who provide excellent direction in the development of this paper. Core funding for the Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region project from 1997 to 2009 was provided by NASA’s LCLUC program (NAG 56046, 511134, 06GD98G) and NSF’s BCS program (0410016). An additional sponsor of the research reported in this paper was the Mexican National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity, CONABIO (BJ002). The project is indebted to assistance provided by our host institution in Mexico, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, especially Unidad Chetumal.

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  1. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Av. del Centenario Km 5.5, C.P. 77900, Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico

    Birgit Schmook

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Schmook, B. Shifting maize cultivation and secondary vegetation in the Southern Yucatán: successional forest impacts of temporal intensification. Reg Environ Change 10, 233–246 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-010-0128-2

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