Today was a research day for me. I conducted research (literature review) of similar projects that have looked at secondary succession occurring on abandoned pasture lands in tropical regions. I was surprised to find that most of the research prior to 2010 was primarily in the Eastern United States on land that has been allowed to become fallow. I learned today that tropical deforestation has occurred extensively over the past 60 years globally and most of this has been done for agriculture.
Deforestation rates are hard to predict, but an it is unquestionably high. In the 1990s, the estimate provided by Mayaux, et al, 2005 was in the range of 5.8 million hectares per year.
In Latin American, the primary reason for converting tropical forest into agricultural pasture is for livestock grazing, and for cash crops such as coffee.
The reasons provided on why these areas are no longer used for pasture and allowed to become fallow and allow for the forest to come back into these areas are as follows: commodity prices for agricultural crops declines, changes in agricultural policies and subsidies, lack of productivity (soil becomes infertile), industrialization, civil war/unrest, and the placing of these lands into conservation programs to protect and nurture these ecosystems and species.
One thing that surprised me, that really shouldn't have I suppose, is the fact that agricultural use of tropical lands for agricultural production was quite extensive for certain regions prior to European colonization. I also found out that the main factors for regeneration in these areas include rainfall, temperature, soil conditions, and anthropogenic disturbances within and at the periphery of these sites.
I spoke with Scott today too, during lunch, and he told me about other research that is occurring locally on this same habitat types looking at succession in the same manner. I think this is important for me to be review and to glean important aspects from this so that the comparison and references can be for a research project that is being done locally and spans many years. I hope to continue to work on this literature review this evening and I also want to get ready for tomorrow.
The main item I need for tomorrow's outing is a GPS unit so that I can get the latitude and longitude for the trees that are coming into the abandoned pasture. There are not too many trees in there now and thus I can get these coordinates, species, estimated height, and then map these in proximity to the parcel boundary. I know it is not that much information in terms of research and a possible poster, but it what is doable in the short number of days we have here at the OTS Las Cruces Biological Station. I have been on projects before that were way too grandiose to complete in the limited amount of time we had.
My partner, Christine Whitehorse, is very interested in the Indigenous people from Panama and has decided to go out with them today to get to know their thoughts on the medicinal plants of the area. I hope she can refocus on the work at hand and get the Landsat data processed in time for our presentation. The raw data is available, it needs to be transformed and we need to include our data for the data we capture onto this remotely sensed map. Tomorrow, I hope that a map is generated and that we begin our poster, at least begin working on a draft.
I am getting use to the long days here, long days of field work and office work, working in the lab and reviewing existing literature. Time is not something that dictates what and when we do something, it is based upon how much we have been able to successfully complete and how much left we have to do. These hours are a lot like what my students have told me about in their research experiences; it's about getting the job done and being happy with what you have developed in the time you are given. Wish us luck, we have a way to go. Now, off to look for a GPS unit that we may use for tomorrow's outing.
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