Outlook on climate change adaptation in the Tropical Andes mountains

The Andean Forest Monitoring Network: a communication platform for science and policy in the Andean countries (Red de Bosques Andinos) CASE STUDY

Tropical mountain forests are fragile but contain high biological diversity. In total these forests host 45,000 vascular plants and 3,400 species of vertebrates in just 1% of the Earth’s land mass. However, high mountain tropical forests are seriously threatened by climate change and land use changes. Despite these threats, knowledge about the effects of global change on biodiversity in tropical mountain forests is still poorly understood. It is therefore a priority to establish and apply long term monitoring of these ecosystems. A workshop held in October 2012 in Lima, Peru, brought together more than 40 scientists and policy makers working on Andean forests. Among the results of the workshop, it led to the formation of the Andean Forest Monitoring Network. The goals of the network include stimulating scientific research on Andean forest ecosystems by promoting collaboration among scientists, and serving as a platform to facilitate applied research and communication between scientists and policy makers. Current members of the network include scientists from Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Peru, USA, and representatives of Ministries of Environment and the national Climate Change adaptation programs of Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. The creation of the network, and the development of its first two papers, was possible thanks to the financial support of the Swiss Agency of International Cooperation (SDC)

through the International Centre on Environmental Monitoring (CIMA), the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the endorsement of the Andean Community General Secretariat (SG-CAN). The network has produced two important documents for the region. The first is an extended protocol to monitor biodiversity and carbon dynamics in Andean forests (Osinaga et al., 2014). This protocol was developed by the Institute of Regional Ecology, National University of Tucuman, Argentina, and has been revised by experts working in the Andes. It describes methods to monitor ecological changes over midrange and long periods of time. It focuses on changes in the diversity and growth rates of trees, shrubs and lianas; the cover of herbaceous species; and the carbon content in forests. This protocol is a useful tool for those interested in conducting long-term ecological research. Moreover, its use produces standardized data needed to understand ecological processes. The second document presents a meta-analysis of the dynamics of trees and carbon in the region, the first conducted in the region. Network members contributed data from more than 60 monitoring sites located from Colombia to Argentina. Some sites have been monitored since the 1990’s. The initial results indicate that warmer, wetter, and more seasonally differentiated forests had higher turnover rates of individual trees, and biomass. Most of these patterns hold for both, tropical and subtropical forest sites.

Hummingbird, Cocora Valley, Colombia

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