Calakmul's Vanishing Waters and the Path to Recovery
Calakmul Biosphere Reserve faces severe water scarcity due to climate change and human impact. Research reveals water body loss and animal suffering but also successful restoration efforts.
In the last decade, bodies of water have been lost in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, and it has also been shown that correct human actions can lead to their recovery and resilience, explained the academic from the UNAM Engineering Institute. Judith Guadalupe Ramos Hernández.
She explained that since 2011 she has been working with a group of specialists reviewing the ecosystem in general, land uses, as well as the effects generated by meteorological phenomena or climate change.
During the talk “Resilience in the forest? Interactions and changes at different scales over time”, the expert commented that they are currently investigating in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve measuring soil moisture, to establish the availability of the vital liquid in the region.
Ramos Hernández added that it has been said that there is too much water in the forest, but not everywhere. In the area they have studied, drought exists if a phenomenon such as La Niña or El Niño occurs. Although currently drinking water is obtained from rain, the Mayan settlements found cenotes known as aguadas that have a depth of one or one and a half meters.
In the Emilio Rosenblueth Seminar Hall, the researcher argued that tropical forests are of interest because Mexico is one of the 10 countries with the largest surface area of primary forests and their evolution depends solely on natural disturbances.
Ramos Hernández stated: There are opportunities for restoration, we can achieve it for several years. In this process, the human being is key, because just as he generates these disturbances, he can also help adaptation be achieved. That is where we come in, we measure soil moisture, we know what the availability of water is and the areas that are drying out, where the most deforestation has occurred, and we establish the conditions that help the resilience of the system.
Before students and academics, the doctor in Water Resources Management pointed out that this work has been carried out since 2011 with the leadership of Jesús Garcia, and collaborates with scientists from the Institute of Geology, the Faculty of Chemistry and the National Polytechnic Institute.
She recalled that research in the Reserve began when studying the El Ramonal waterhole, near the Calakmul pyramids. In 2013 they checked the water level and the levels were marked, but by 2017 the liquid was not even visible.
Added to this was that in 2012 a drought began in the area that worsened until 2019; It was so serious that that year the animals went out to look for water in the towns; They were dying of hunger and also of thirst and fear. It was a phenomenon that dried up practically all the waters, but thanks to the pandemic some were recovered.
Another case is the Heliport waterhole, whose impact caused only a patch to be seen in 2015 and in 2019 it dried up. The reduction of human activities in the area, coupled with the reestablishment of the natural flow of water, led to them being visible again this year and being in recovery, explained the scientist attached to the Institute's Hydraulics Coordination.
These sites, Ramos Hernández stressed, are climate regulators whose scope is local, regional and global; They have the capacity to store almost 68 percent of the world's carbon, hence the importance of conserving them together.
As forests change at different scales, it is increasingly important to understand whether these changes lead to improved resilience and potential tipping points, so understanding these processes would help assess risks to ecosystems and present opportunities for their development, restoration and sustainable forest management, he concluded.
