Ecological integrity in a forest under timber production in central Mexico
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29298/rmcf.v15i81.1430Keywords:
Composición, diversidad, estructura, función ecosistémica, manejo forestal., composición de especies, diversidad vegetal, estructura de comunidades, función ecosistémica, índice de integridad ecológica, manejo forestalAbstract
Ecological integrity (EI) is the property of an ecosystem to support and maintain a community of organisms whose composition, diversity, and functional organization is comparable to a natural habitat in the region. This concept is useful to know the degree of conservation of an ecosystem; therefore, it is of interest in forest management. The objective of this study was to develop and apply an Ecological Integrity Index (EII) in an area of temperate forest with timber harvesting. The site had four plant associations: three under timber harvesting (Pinus montezumae, P. patula, and P. pseudostrobus), and one corresponding to a conservation area (Pinus-Quercus). In order to calculate the index, the structure, composition, and function of the forest were evaluated through 20 markers, corresponding to three ecological attributes: landscape, vegetation, and soil. Four possible categories were established: excellent, good, fair and poor. The highest value of the EII was obtained in the conservation area, in the excellent category, while in the associations under harvesting, that of P. patula was rated excellent, and those of P. montezumae and P. pseudostrobus were rated good. In the area under harvesting, observation and minimal intervention are required to maintain and improve EI. The EII made it possible to characterize the associations under management, in addition to identifying the markers that require intervention or further research to maintain EI. This generated a baseline of knowledge of EI in the study area, which may be useful for its management.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Forestales
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The authors who publish in Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Forestales accept the following conditions:
In accordance with copyright laws, Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Forestales recognizes and respects the authors’ moral right and ownership of property rights which will be transferred to the journal for dissemination in open access.
All the texts published by Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Forestales –with no exception– are distributed under a Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), which allows third parties to use the publication as long as the work’s authorship and its first publication in this journal are mentioned
The author(s) can enter into independent and additional contractual agreements for the nonexclusive distribution of the version of the article published in Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Forestales (for example, include it into an institutional repository or publish it in a book) as long as it is clearly and explicitly indicated that the work was published for the first time in Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Forestales.
For all the above, the authors shall send the form of Letter-transfer of Property Rights for the first publication duly filled in and signed by the author(s). This form must be sent as a PDF file to: ciencia.forestal2@inifap.gob.mx
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International license.