Assessing Processes Contributing to the Decline of an Important Alpine Ecosystem in the Tropical Andes: A Mixed Methods Approach

Keywords: Páramo, Critical Physical Geography, Convergent Methods, Andes, Ecuador, Latin America
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

The páramo is a unique tropical Andean ecosystem, consisting of biodiverse grasslands and peatlands found within the Northern Andean Páramo global ecoregion. Over the past four decades, Ecuadorian páramo ecosystems have experienced continued decline due to land use and land cover (LULC) change, driven primarily by social-ecological changes. LULC pasture conversion in Ecuador is a social, political, and biophysical issue, resulting in resource insecurity for both local and regional populations who are dependent on surface water from the headwaters originating in the páramo. Until recently, research on solutions to mediating páramo LULC has been driven by the physical sciences, with few published studies from social sciences. Comprehensively addressing pasture conversion requires identifying and analyzing LULC rates of change, but also necessitates examining the broader political and economic drivers of pasture conversion throughout the region. In addressing these challenges, collaborators and I proceed with the question: what is the extent and rate of paramo loss from the neoliberal structural adjustment of the state to the present, what factors encourage páramo loss, and how is páramo conversion negotiated on the ground by the communities that live nearby? Herein, we employ mixed methods informed by critical physical geography, including remote sensing and a Random Forest machine learning model and qualitative methods including interviews and participant observation in two different headwater communities. This dissertation will develop appropriately-integrated mixed methods in areas of convergent socio-ecological research, providing a long-term monitoring tool and a more holistic understanding of factors contributing to páramo decline in the region.