Título

Recovery of Vegetation Cover and Soil after the Removal of Sheep in Socorro Island, Mexico

Autor

ADALBERTO ANTONIO ORTIZ ALCARAZ

YOLANDA LOURDES MAYA DELGADO

PATRICIA CORTES CALVA

ALFONSO AGUIRRE MUNOZ

EVARISTO MANUEL ROJAS MAYORAL

MIGUEL VICTOR CORDOBA MATSON

ALFREDO ORTEGA RUBIO

Nivel de Acceso

Acceso Abierto

Licencia

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Referencia de publicación

doi: DOI: 10.3390/f7040091

URL/URL: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests

ISSN/ISSN: 1999-4907

Materias

feral sheep, soil erosion, soil recovery, Socorro Island - (AUTOR) CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA - (CTI) CIENCIAS AGRARIAS - (CTI) CIENCIA FORESTAL - (CTI) CONTROL DE LA EROSIÓN - (CTI)

Resumen o descripción

"For over 140 years, the habitat of Socorro Island in the Mexican Pacific has been altered by the presence of exotic sheep. Overgrazing, jointly with tropical storms, has caused soil erosion, and more than 2000 hectares of native vegetation have been lost. Sheep eradication was conducted from 2009 to 2012. Since then, the vegetation has begun to recover passively, modifying soil properties.

The objective of our study was to verify that this island was resilient enough to be recovered and in a relatively short time scale. To confirm our hypothesis, we analyzed changes in the physical-chemical properties of the soil and vegetation cover, the last one in different times and habitats after sheep eradication. The change in vegetation cover was estimated by comparing the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) between 2008 and 2013. In sites altered by feral sheep, soil compaction was assessed, and soil samples were taken, analyzing pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium. After a year of total sheep eradication, clear indications in the recovery of vegetation cover and improvement of soil quality parameters were

observed and confirmed, specifically compaction and nitrogen, organic carbon, phosphorus, and calcium. The results seem to support our hypothesis."

Editor

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Fecha de publicación

2016

Tipo de publicación

Artículo

Versión de la publicación

Versión publicada

Recurso de información

http://cibnor.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1001/742

Formato

application/pdf

Fuente

Forests

Idioma

Inglés

Repositorio Orígen

Repositorio Institucional CIBNOR

Descargas

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