I. Project Description
The purpose of this study is to contribute new knowledge to understand the ecosystem-level response to large scale natural disturbance in southern Yucatán through the evaluation of forest resilience in protected areas. The increased frequency of hurricane disturbance in forest and the role of invasive species and agricultural burning in suppressing natural forest recovery will be analyzed. In addition, knowledge derived from this research will increase the technical and scientific capacity of protected area agencies at Calakmul and Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserves to establish and employ science-based approaches and techniques for long-term forest management following large-scale disturbance across the largest and fastest-disappearing tract of tropical forest in Centra America.
The folowing researchers are conducting this project:
Dr. Laura C. Schneider, Department of Geography Rutgers University
Dr. Deborah Lawrence, University of Virginia
Dr. John Rogan, Clark University
Dr. Birgit Schmook, ECOSUR
II Description of the Region
The seasonally dry tropical forests of southern Yucatán are the largest and fastest disappearing tract of tropical forest in Central America. The study region occupies about 50,000 km2 of southwestern Quintana Roo and southeastern Campeche, north of the Mexican-Guatemala border. It contains the two most important Biosphere Reserves in Mexico: Calakmul (CBR) and Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserves (Sian Ka’an). The conservation corridor between CBR and Sian Ka’an is the largest in extent for Mesoamerica, and it is of particular importance as it connects the uplands of the region where most of the water that feeds the coastal ecosystems of Sian Ka’an originates. With an increase in population from 2,500 to approximately 35,000 between 1960 and today, the southern Yucatán peninsular region finds itself in a human-use struggle to find a balance between the agricultural needs of the new settlements and broader aims to preserve the region as a biotic reserve and biological corridor. Economic development and over-utilization of natural resources have catalyzed dramatic changes to the southern Yucatán and increased the urgency to examine the links between ecosystem dynamics and extreme weather events in relation to environmental change and human land-use.
Map of the region
III Conservation Organizations
