Gabriel Zeballos Castellon, Graduate Student, Department of Geography, OSU
As glaciers in the tropical Andes continue to shrink and in many cases tend to disappear, more attention is focused on peatlands as one of the main remaining hydrologic regulators and natural reservoirs of water in the region. Yet peat accumulating wetlands (known as bofedales) are complex and variable elements in the alpine landscape that present challenges and opportunities for interdisciplinary research. We use a number of methods to disentangle this complexity and understand the drivers that may affect peatland conditions and stability. In this talk, I will showcase some of the work we are doing in the Bolivian Andes. From remote sensing to Participatory Mapping and vegetation analysis, our analysis of peatlands benefits from the integration of internationally collaborative environmental and climate research groups.
