Paramo Chingaza

Research Leads

Project Summary

This project seeks to develop a strategic research collaboration to study the effects of climate and land use changes on water provision, food security and downstream energy generation by the Páramo of Chingaza. This high-altitude (>3000 m) Andean hot spot of biodiversity currently provides 70% of Bogotá’s freshwater supply, generates critical hydropower, and underpins important agricultural activities.

Currently, there is an urgent need to develop a better understanding of the relationship between Páramo hydrological processes and key biological and soil factors that control water regulation (interception, storage, and release) by this ecosystem, as this knowledge is crucial for estimating the effect of global change on water provision services and for designing appropriate land use plans to ensure adequate future water supply to cities and rural areas. This seed grant will support the initiation of an integrated, inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional study of Páramo ecohydrology and its WEF-services, as perceived by rural communities in the adjacent area.

The seed grant will support the initiation of the following five collaborative research objectives:

1. Define a conceptual model of Páramo hydrological characteristics;

2. Design a methodology to quantify plant evapotranspiration of the three main Páramo vegetation cover types;

3. Conduct a preliminary characterization of a representative Páramo catchment (upper basin of Calostros Stream, Páramo of Chingaza), to collect relevant environmental information for refined hydrological models and future experimental designs;

4. Explore socioeconomic implications and perceptions of rural communities and high school citizen scientists of past, present and future Páramo WEF-services;

5. Promote team-building and draft an outline for a more extensive extramurally-funded future research proposal addressing Paramo WEF-services and their sensitivity to environmental

This seed grant will support and strengthen a research alliance involving PSU and a consortium of Colombian stakeholders from academia (UTADEO and other Colombian universities), government (Bogotá Water Company and National Parks Service), NGOs (Fundación P’al Monte, Water Fund), and rural communities, concerned about WEF-services from the Páramo. To expand this initiative, a local networking workshop will be held in Bogotá, to coincide with the visit by PSU researchers to Colombia (1 week) for conducting field work and for initiating the community surveys. The multi-disciplinary work teams supported via this seed project and the preliminary data collected will catalyze future large-scale extramural funding proposals that may be submitted to ministries of Science, Environment, Culture, and Regalias in Colombia and to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States.