Provisión de servicios ecosistémicos en paisajes rurales: desarrollo de criterios y herramientas para el ordenamiento territorial rural

Abstract

En esta tesis se evaluó la provisión de cinco servicios ecosistémicos (SE) en una cuenca representativa del sudeste bonaerense. Para la cuantificación y mapeo de los mismos se desarrolló un conjunto de procedimientos que integran un protocolo de mapeo original. A su vez, se analizaron las relaciones espaciales entre SE y biodiversidad y la posibilidad de su mejora a través de acciones de restauración ecológica. Los productos generados en esta tesis revisten interés teórico por su capacidad para mejorar nuestra comprensión de las relaciones entre la sociedad y los ecosistemas, proveyendo criterios y herramientas para orientar la toma de decisiones sobre usos de la tierra y gestión del paisaje rural.

Currently it is now acknowledged that the ecosystem services (ES) approach provides a useful tool (particularly in land use planning) to support an informed decision making, because it allows linking decisions, factors of change, ecosystems and human welfare. However, its implementation is still in its infancy due to conceptual and methodological weaknesses that limit its impact. This thesis contributes to partially reverse this situation by providing information and novel procedures in the field of ES. In this regard, the provision of five ES was assessed in a representative basin of the Southeast of Buenos Aires Province (Mar Chiquita basin): climate regulation, potential crop production, clean surface water availability, clean groundwater availability and flood regulation. A set of procedures were developed to quantify and map these ES, which are part of ECOSER (a GIS modelling framework aimed at the collaborative assessment of ecosystem services for land use planning). For flood regulation ES, which is critical in the studied area, the propagation and capture spatial patterns were also studied to estimate how this ES translates into effective benefits for farmers of different sub-basins. Also, the spatial relationships between ES and biodiversity and their potential improvement through ecological restoration actions were analysed. The results allowed the description of spatial patterns in the provision of the studied ES and the identification of key areas to promote conservation. The analysis of spatial relationships revealed that 18% of the basin studied would be strategic to plan the simultaneous conservation of biodiversity and ES, without competing with crop production. The simulation of alternative land use scenarios (images of the future) allowed to highlight the role of different vegetation covers in buffering floods and the importance of taking into account the propagation and capture processes to make ES approach operational in making decisions. Finally, it was shown that ecological restoration in agroecosystems is effective in general and can be recommended as an alternative to enhance biodiversity and provision of ES. The products of this thesis are of theoretical interest for its ability to improve our understanding of the relationship between society and ecosystems, providing criteria and tools to guide decision-making on land use and management of rural landscape.