Volume 6 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.1067598 This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Processing and Preservation of Underutilized Indigenous FoodsView all 7 articles Traditional fermented products are disappearing from the local foodscapes due to social pressures and ecological changes that affect their production; it is therefore crucial to document local knowledge which is crucial to maintain and recover local biocultural heritage and to contribute to food security This study aims to document and foster the production of local traditional beverages by registering recipes of fermented beverages in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán biosphere reserve in central Mexico a region recognized for its great biocultural diversity We conducted a search of peer-reviewed literature we included ethnographic research and participatory methods to engage residents in different steps of the production process We identified five main fermented beverages in the research area the most common beverages are those produced by agave species which include pulque and an almost extinct beverage known as lapo which involves sugar cane as main substrate We also identified a fermented beverage produced with several cacti fruits known as nochoctli and a traditional a fermented beverage produced with fruits of Schinus molle known as tolonche We highlight the production of lapo and tolonche since these involved the incorporation of foreign substrates into the region after the Spaniard conquest and to their restricted distribution and almost extinction The beverages tolonche and lapo are nowadays almost lost and only a few producers still prepare them to follow modified versions of the original recipe Lapo and tolonche were once important in the research area but almost became extinct until local people started to recently recover them Traditional fermented beverages in Mexico play an important role in cultural identity and contribute to the local diet; nevertheless several fermented beverages have not been recorded and have even become extinct This work is an effort to promote and conserve traditional fermented beverages as valuable biocultural heritage by empowering people to make decisions about the use of locally available resources which is crucial in times when food systems are highly vulnerable there was little information characterizing the preparation of a fermented beverage with S molle fruits in Mexico nor any data on where it is prepared or consumed until this study This fact reflects the relevance of a core beverage and the addition of secondary ingredients thus allowing for the diversification of a central fermented product in Mexican people's diet little has been studied to characterize the diversity of traditional fermented beverages in the region Based on previous research assessing food systems in the region this study aims to identify and characterize the traditional beverages of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley including their main plant substrates and those that have been added as part of the dynamic management practices in the region We particularly emphasize two beverages that are endangered to be lost and that have not been documented in detail We performed ethnobiological research to characterize their plant substrates and the mechanisms employed for its current conservation especially needed when food systems are vulnerable Source: INEGI conjunto de datos vectoriales producers were visited and asked if they allowed us to conduct open interviews and 1 with lapo producers (7 in total) for a deeper information acquisition of the production of these fermented beverages We employed participant observation regarding the production of the local traditional fermented beverages in the region The authors participated in the preparation of lapo and tolonche beverages molle fruits and the obtention of agave sap to the consumption of the beverage and the documentation of the details throughout the production process Photographs and video records were taken with the authorization of the interviewees given through oral consent from the local authorities and participants We also registered data about the economic and socio-cultural roles of the producers of fermented beverages When we identified the production of a traditional fermented beverage prepared with S we also documented other uses of this tree we identified five traditional fermented beverages prepared in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley in which Agave species are the main plant substrate to produce fermented beverages We recorded that the production of lapo is almost extinct and only one producer remains active We also identified a fermented beverage produced with different cacti fruits known as nochoctli a beverage prepared with fruits of the pepper tree (S we will describe the five beverages produced in the region based on their substrates We particularly emphasize the production of lapo and tolonche due to their uniqueness in the region the incorporation of foreign substrates such as S karwinskii is also distributed in the region but not employed for mescal production because the mescal produced with this specie causes headaches and its sugar concentrations are too low for the fermentation process a recent interaction between mescal producers from the state of Oaxaca (a major mescal state producer) and Zapotitlán has led to the incorporation of the know-how for this mescal there has been an increasing market demand in recent years for mescal based on A inaequidens that has promoted the cultivation of this species in extensive areas even when this is an introduced specie in the region marmorata cultivars for mescal production closer to the mescal factory (B) Distillation process in Zapotitlan Salinas (D) Agave mead storage in plastic container for further pulque production Pulque producers in the community have nowadays decreased They say this activity demands excessive work and causes social stigmas but pays off low economic profit the number of mescal producers has increased and producers that had historically been pulque producers have now shifted to mescal production Pulque is prepared by adding a wide diversity of fruits; in the study region All these fruits are part of the local landscapes of the region and most of these species are managed to obtain these fruits While pulque production occurs in clay vessels (Figure 5) the maintenance and cleaning of the ship are particularly important for producers if a new vessel is going to be used for pulque They leave the leaves inside the vessel until they rot and are then removed Agave mead is added to start the fermentation process another practice to clean and guarantee the optimal status of the final product is to add alcohol and set it on fire to clean possible undesired odors and flavors The latter practice is performed mainly when the final product is predominantly acidic It should be highlighted that there is a preference for segmented shapes with wide middle parts and mouths This allows to contain fermented products and prevent them from spilling the vessels are kept and sealed in a safe place and cleaned with plain water We particularly noted that pulque consumers identify differences in the quality of pulque when it is produced in clay containers rather than plastic containers and preferences are significantly high for clay vessels (B) Sugar cane production in the community of San Gabriel Chilac (C) Actual lapo distributed in San Gabriel Chilac Lapo was maintained and reproduced for several years it was later produced with brown sugar rather than mescal or sugar cane and has remained like this until present times people consider that the flavor is different and that the actual lapo does not have the flavor that it used to have 5 to 8 L per week and the alcoholic content varies since the volumes of pulque and brown sugar and fermentation duration are heterogenous the gathering of cacti fruits has also changed due to an increase in demand for fruits like Pachycereus weberi or Hylocereus undatus The increase in demand in national and international markets has altered the gathering of these fruits for local consumption and changed the motivation to maintain this beverage There has also been an increase in migration in the localities that produce nochoctli which might endanger the transmission of the knowledge for producing this beverage to future generations Several socio-economic pressures threaten the future of this beverage but perhaps the most important is the low oral transmission about how to produce it mainly because migration is a common factor affecting the localities studied (A) A scheme for tolonche production; (B) Recollection of S molle seeds; (C) Removing the hull from the seeds; (D) Watering the fruits of S and (E) Pulque addition for a shorter fermentation time The use of this tree for medicinal purposes has vanished throughout the area that goes from the Andean region to Mesoamerica and most producers use plastic containers and add pulque to obtain a more rapid fermentation Traditional vessels from the community of Los Reyes Metzontla for tolonche and pulque fermentation (B) modern vessels for tolonche production also this clay containers are used for pulque production in small batches (C) Agave salmiana plantations for pulque production in Los Reyes Metzontla community It is important to highlight that most of the producers are women that learned the production process from their mothers tolonche was a fermented beverage in this region that was mainly produced by women known as toloncheras This product gave the women economic incomes The current producers that remain argue that it is important that their families know how to produce this beverage so they are teaching their kids and other interested people in the community both producers started the production because of its symbolic association with family relationships and a sense of belonging to the community they also point out that the main reason for the disappearance of this beverage is the easiness with which they can acquire other beverages that are accessible in the local store such as soda or beer the production of this beverage involves time for its production It is important to highlight the incorporation of other knowledges as the use of A although the production of this mescal is not yet expanded it might be gradually incorporated to local knowledge for future productions this issue has been a significant pressure in the marginalization of fermented products worldwide the production of tolonche in Zapotitlán Salinas has been dramatically reduced due to the low communication between parents and children and the decrease in oral and daily practical experiences the last tolonchera in Chazumba is trying in recent years to transmit this knowledge and maintain the beverage through different channels such as local festivities the maintenance of this oral transmission might allow the continuity of this product In Peru, different uses of S. molle have been recorded, such as the use of the leaves to combat ophthalmia (or “eye clouds”) and rheumatism. Similarly, the trunk sap is also consumed as a purgative or diuretic remedy, while at the skin level it is used as an ointment for leg pain or swelling. Also, the bark is used as a dye because yellow color is obtained from it, although there is not much information about its production (Kramer, 1957) It might be possible that the loss of all these applications of S molle might be due to the lack of oral transmission from the Peruvian locality through Mexican territory molle seeds as a substitute for sugar in the localities might highlight the knowledge that the locals have of their environment Human cultural groups develop several strategies with the resources surrounding them and the diversification and incorporation of different substrates to produce traditional fermented beverages in Mexico have been historically common This can be seen throughout the fermented products of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley here a constant exploration of the production of these beverages has maintained keystone products made from agave plants—such as pulque and mescal—and has promoted the incorporation of other species as S officinarum as a way of diversifying and innovating pulque preparations and promoting a resilient fermented landscape traditional fermented products are silently disappearing from the foodscapes The lack of reproduction from generation to generation of this knowledge constrains the maintenance of these complex foodscapes Tolonche was a beverage that contributed to regional pride and cultural identity Local efforts to revive this beverage reflect a strong relationship with the cultural heritage due to the lack of access to the means of sugar cane production this beverage's revival is compromised The detailed documentation and description of the preparation of these beverages is an effort to revive traditions around food systems and contribute to the rescuing of the know-how for producing of these beverages to help future generations cope with food security and sovereignty graduate of the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (IIES) MV is a full-time researcher at Jardín Botánico The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors Written informed consent was obtained from the individuals for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article and reviewed all versions of the manuscript All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version This research received financial support from the Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica The authors thank the Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología CONACYT for supporting the Ph.D we thank Iván Felipe Galíndez Ortegón for recording the process with outstanding photographs We especially thank people from the localities of Zapotitlan and Chazumba for their hospitality Most importantly for tolonche knowledge for preservation and sharing We particularly thank Lucila Flores Pimentel who is the older keeper and sharer of tolonche production and her daughter Maribel Morales Flores and his local group Aprendiendo a vivir for active participation in local heritage revivals we want to thank Noé Barragán for pulque production experience and for sharing this amazing beverage and his brother Fernando Barragán for all the knowledge around mescal production The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar African traditional fermented foods and probiotics PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Handmade comal tortillas in 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Mariana Vallejo, bWFyaWFuYS52YWxsZWpvQGliLnVuYW0ubXg= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish The World Heritage Centre is at the forefront of the international community’s efforts to protect and preserve World Heritage partnerships for conservation Ensuring that World Heritage sites sustain their outstanding universal value is an increasingly challenging mission in today’s complex world where sites are vulnerable to the effects of uncontrolled urban development Our Partners Donate Take advantage of the search to browse through the World Heritage Centre information is the arid or semi-arid zone with the richest biodiversity in all of North America it is one of the main centres of diversification for the cacti family The valley harbours the densest forests of columnar cacti in the world shaping a unique landscape that also includes agaves Archaeological remains demonstrate technological developments and the early domestication of crops The valley presents an exceptional water management system of canals which has allowed for the emergence of agricultural settlements qui fait partie de la région méso-américaine est la zone aride ou semi-aride la plus riche en biodiversité de toute l’Amérique du Nord Composé de trois éléments - Zapotitlán-Cuicatlán ce bein est l'un des principaux centres de diversification de la famille des cactus La vallée abrite notamment les forêts de cactus tubulaires les plus denses de la planète qui modèlent un paysage unique également composé d’agaves Les traces archéologiques révèlent par ailleurs un processus d'évolution technique qui reflète la domestication précoce des végétaux La vallée présente un système exceptionnel de gestion de l'eau constitué de canaux d'aqueducs et de barrages qui sont les plus anciens du continent et ont permis la sédentarisation de communautés vivant de l'agriculture The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán: originary habitat of Mesoamerica is located in central-southern Mexico at the southeast of the State of Puebla and north of the State of Oaxaca The property is a serial site of some 145,255 ha composed of three components: Zapotitlán-Cuicatlán All these share the same buffer zone of some 344,932 ha The entire property is located within the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve The property coincides with a global biodiversity hotspot and lies within an arid or semiarid zone with one of the highest levels of biological diversity in North America giving rise to human adaptations crucial to the emergence of Mesoamerica one of the cradles of civilisation in the world 15 different xeric shrublands are exclusive to the Tehuacán- Cuicatlán Valley The valley includes representatives of a remarkable 70% of worldwide flora families and includes over 3,000 species of vascular plants of which 10% are endemic to the Valley It is also a global centre of agrobiodiversity and diversification for numerous groups of plants with 28 genera and 86 species of which 21 are endemic Large “cacti-forests” shape some landscapes of the Valley making it one of the most unique areas in the world The property exhibits the impressively high levels of faunal diversity known in this region including very high levels of endemism among mammals It also hosts an unusually high number of threatened species with some 38 listed under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The property is one of the richest protected areas in Mexico in terms of terrestrial mammals (134 species registered The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley is part of the Balsas Region and Interior Oaxaca Endemic Bird Area (EBA) The property has eight known roosting areas of the threatened Green Macaw including a breeding colony combined with the adverse conditions of a desert gave rise to one of the largest and best documented cultural sequences in the Americas The archaeological evidence reveals the long sequence of human adaptations that took place in the area for over 12,000 years The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley is an exceptional example of a long process of adaptations and ancient technological evolution that defined the cultural region known today as Mesoamerica The arid conditions of the Valley triggered innovation and creativity originating two of the major technological advances of human history: 1) plant domestication which in the Valley is one of the most ancient worldwide and 2) development of water management technologies resulting in a wide array of water management elements aqueducts and dams which make it the most diversified ancient irrigation complex of the continent water management technological features were the ruling guide for the civilisational process that was developed in the Valley throughout thousands of years these technological advances had a multiplying effect and fostered the discovery of other innovations like salt industry and pottery which were essential to the organisation and complexity of the first civilisations The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habitat of Mesoamerica is an invaluable and irreplaceable heritage of humanity Criterion (iv): The technological ensemble of water management of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley along with other archaeological evidences such as the remains found in caves mark a stage of the utmost importance for the Mesoamerican region: the appearance and development of one of the oldest civilisations in the world these technologies bear unique evidence of the constant adaptation of humans to the environment and reflect their innovative capacity to face the adverse environmental conditions in the area Criterion (x): The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley demonstrates exceptional levels of biological diversity in an arid and semiarid zone in North America A remarkable 70% of worldwide floral families are represented in the Valley and the area is one of the main centres of diversification for the cacti family A remarkable diversity of cacti exists within the property often in exceptional densities of up to 1,800 columnar cacti per hectare The property exhibits particularly high diversity among other plant types it hosts one of the highest animal biodiversity levels in a dryland at least with regard to taxa such as amphibians The property coincides with one of the most important protected areas worldwide for the conservation of threatened species encompassing over 10% of the global distribution range of four amphibian species and is ranked as the one of the two most important protected areas in the world for the conservation of seven amphibian and three bird species The biodiversity of this region has a long history of sustaining human development and today a third of the total diversity of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley The property is of sufficient overall size and contains the key representative habitats and plant communities of the floristic province Tehuacán-Cuicatlán and all the relevant cultural elements that convey its Outstanding Universal Value The three components include relatively undisturbed areas of high conservation value and the 22 selected archaeological sites and are embedded within a larger buffer zone all of which coincides with the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve Further protection is afforded by the biosphere reserve’s larger transitional zone The management systems in place addresses the various threats to the area and establish objectives strategies and specific actions in coordination with key local national and international stakeholders in order to deal with these threats including any adverse effects of development The component sites still maintain their original condition with the obvious weathering deteriorating effects of time over millennia but without any major disturbance in their main physical and spiritual attributes the sites are still unaltered and the system of sites as a whole has been preserved The property Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habitat of Mesoamerica has effective legal protection to ensure the maintenance of its Outstanding Universal Value The archaeological sites not yet listed in the national registry of the National Institute for Anthropology and History (INAH) At the time of inscription the property had a recently updated Strategic Management Plan which aims to integrate the management of natural heritage with archaeological features through a series of interrelated objectives The plan provides a description of natural and cultural assets within the framework of a mixed World Heritage property and prescribes additional measures for the conservation and management of intangible cultural heritage such as linguistic diversity and communities’ sustainable development The institutions in charge of implementing protective measures are the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) the Federal Attorney General for Environmental Protection and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) For monitoring of biodiversity the National Commission for Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity and the National Forestry Commission coordinate with CONANP All these institutions work together with the Administration Office of the Tehuacán- Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve Ongoing efforts are needed to ensure full integration and institutional coordination across issues related to natural and cultural heritage in accordance with the respective mandates of CONANP and INAH The National Institute of Anthropology and History through the National Coordination for Archaeology is committed to provide the periodical reports on management research and monitoring on cultural heritage Both managing institutions are actively working with local communities and efforts to strengthen these approaches are ongoing UNESCO added 19 new places to its collection of World Heritage sites and Mexico gained yet another spot on that list While most tourists probably haven’t yet heard of the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Valley — Mexico’s new addition — there will surely be more interest in the destination as word spreads located in the central Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca is recognized as having North America’s richest biodiversity The centerpiece is the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Biosphere Reserve a 1.2-million-acre area that’s home to the world’s densest forest of columnar cacti as well as 85 species of reptiles and 338 species of birds are among the reasons why nature lovers are bound to find lots to interest them in this region Located within the biosphere is the Helio Bravo Hollis Botanical Garden where visitors can learn about the medicinal uses of local flora which includes more than 80 species of cacti they can whet their whistle at the Penafiel and Garci-Crespo natural springs which has a museum that recounts the history of the curative waters that have drawn visitors since the 15th century highlights the geological wealth of the region and pre-Hispanic archeological ruins provide a glimpse of the architectural and agricultural knowledge of early Mesoamerican inhabitants Tour Options The Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Valley will likely be included on more tour itineraries in the coming months; for now one of the few international operators that currently features the destination is Tia Stephanie Tours The company offers an eight-day Best of Puebla Tour that combines a guided visit to the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Biosphere Reserve with the chance to meet Mixtec palm weavers and explore the town of Los Reyes which is a popular center for pottery making Also included are visits to the city of Puebla; the pre-Hispanic site at Cholula; and Cuetzalan Another option is provided by Oaxaca-based Tierraventura This itinerary includes a stop at the biosphere reserve where petrified dinosaur footprints and fossilized seashells are among the reasons to visit The company also offers a two-day tour of the reserve that includes visits to Canyon del Sabino — home to the endangered green macaw — and the ruins of an ancient Zapotec settlement that still has a visible ball court Where to Stay and Where to EatFor travelers interested in visiting the valley the town of Tehuacan — which is the second-largest ity in the state of Puebla — is a logical hub for accommodations Noteworthy options include Gran Hotel Mexico a historic property that dates to 1898; Hotel Zenith with its contemporary lodging style; Aldea del Bazar which features a spa and temazcal; and Casa Cantarranas located next to the Penafiel natural springs Visitors can also find plenty of interesting and authentic dining options in the area a restaurant set on an 18th-century estate while Arrecifes is recommended for families since it has a playground A bit farther from the valley — and about two hours from Tehuacan — is the city of Puebla Top accommodation choices here include the luxurious Rosewood Puebla Another popular choice is the historic Quinta Real Puebla which is set in a former 16th-century convent if clients are looking for something more modern La Purificadora is a stylish boutique property that belongs to Grupo Habita UNESCO World Heritage sites are rarely disappointing for tourists And Mexico’s latest addition to that list is sure to please your outdoorsy clients The DetailsMexico Tourism Boardwww.visitmexico.com Tia Stephanie Tourswww.tiastephanietours.com Tierraventurawww.tierraventura.com Copyright © 2025 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. 301 Route 17 N, Suite 1150, Rutherford, NJ 07070 USA | Telephone: (201) 902-2000 Volume 11 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00863 The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley located at the southeast of the state of Puebla and the northeast of the state of Oaxaca in Central Mexico south of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) is of particular interest for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of arid and semi-arid environments being one of the main reservoirs of biological diversity for the arid zones of North America including the highest diversity of Agavaceae worldwide and high levels of endemism environmental history and population genetics of representative species will hopefully shed light on the evolutionary and ecological dynamics that generated the tremendous biodiversity and endemism of this important region in Mexico We sequenced three non-coding regions of chloroplast genome of Agave kerchovei a representative species of the Tehuacán Valley generating 2,188 bp from 128 individuals sampled from eight populations throughout the species range We used this data set to (i) characterize the levels of genetic diversity and genetic structure in A kerchovei; (ii) predict the distribution of A and to reconstruct the past geographical history of the species by constructing ecological niche models (ENM); and (iii) compare the levels of diversity in this species with those estimated for the widely distributed Agave lechuguilla Agave kerchovei has high levels of total chloroplast genetic variation (Hd = 0.718) especially considering that it is a species with a very restricted distribution intrapopulation diversity is low (zero in some populations) and genetic structure is high (FST = 0.928 which can be expected for endemic species with isolated populations Our data suggest that Pleistocene glacial cycles have played an important role in the distribution of A where the climatic variability of the region – likely associated with its topographic complexity – had a significant effect on the levels of genetic diversity and population dynamics while the potential distribution of the species seems to be stable since the middle Holocene (6 kya) kerchovei there is a core group of populations in the Tehuacán Valley and peripheric populations that appear to be evolving independently and thus the species is fundamentally an endemic species from the Tehuacán Valley while the populations outside the Valley appear to be in the process of incipient speciation suggesting that local plant communities were recently assembled Figure 1. (A) Population locations (names as in Table 1) and distribution of haplotypes in the different populations (B) Minimum-spanning network of the chloroplast haplotypes found in the eight populations of A The network represents the most parsimonious connections Each haplotype is represented by a circle whose surface is proportional to the number of individuals bearing it Lines between haplotypes indicate one mutational change Missing haplotypes in the sample are represented by dotted circles while each of the rest of the populations represent one different group Figure 2. Agave kerchovei from Villa Tamazulapám del Progreso, Oaxaca (P2 in Figure 1) herbarium samples for different localities are deposited at the MEXU Measures of genetic variation for the analyzed populations of Agave kerchovei Total DNA was extracted by grinding approximately 0.25 g of fresh leaf tissue in liquid nitrogen using a CTAB (2X) extraction protocol (Doyle and Doyle, 1987) and resuspended in 60 μl of ultrapure water (Molecular Biology Reagent; SIGMA) Three non-coding chloroplast (cpDNA) regions [psbJ-petA, rpl32-trnL (Shaw et al., 2007) and trnL-trnF (Taberlet et al., 1991)] were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced for 136 individuals The PCR amplifications were carried out in a GeneAmp® PCR system 2700 (Applied Biosystems) in total reaction volumes of 30 μl 1.5 mM MgCl2 (for primers rpl32-trnL and trnL-trnF) and 2 mM MgCl2 (for primer psbJ-petA) The cycling conditions consisted of an initial denaturation at 94°C for 5 min 55°C for 30 s (for primers rpl32-trnL and trnL-trnF) or 55°C for 50 s (for primer psbJ-petA) and 72°C for 1 min followed by a final extension at 72°C for 8 min PCR products were purified and sequenced in the High Throughput Genomic Unit The observed number of haplotypes with (h) and without indels (h∗), haplotype diversity (Hd), nucleotide diversity (π), and the Watterson estimator of theta (θ) for each population were obtained using the program DnaSP v5.10.1 (Librado and Rozas, 2009). These summary statistics were re-estimated for the populations of A. lechuguilla, reported by Scheinvar et al. (2017) We used the program Arlequin version 3.5 (Excoffier and Lischer, 2010) to estimate pairwise FST (Weir and Cockerham, 1984) between populations to test for isolation by distance with a Mantel test (Mantel, 1967) and to conduct a molecular analysis of variance (AMOVA) (Excoffier et al., 1992). Finally, with the program PERMUT (Pons and Petit, 1996) we evaluated with 1000 permutations whether there was significant phylogeographic structure by estimating and comparing the differentiation parameters NST and GST We calculated Tajima’s D with DnaSP v5.10.1 (Librado and Rozas, 2009) to infer basic aspects of demographic histories. Tajima’s D (Tajima, 1989) statistic is based on the differences between the number of segregating sites and the average number of nucleotide differences Significant negative D (P < 0.05) statistic can indicate no neutrality All climate layers had a 30 arc-second resolution Distribution models were built with 20 replicates using 10,000 random background points Models were validated using 25% of the occurrence data using the receiver operating curve (ROC) statistic We evaluated the replicate models using the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) where models with values below 0.8 were dismissed The remaining replicates models were combined to construct the present-day model and then projected into the past climate layers We followed the same modeling procedure to generate present-day distribution models for A lechuguilla using 97 unique occurrence localities at a 30 arc-second resolution the models were built after selecting eight layers corresponding to Annual Mean Temperature (bio 1) Mean Temperature of the Driest Quarter (bio 9) Mean Temperature of Warmest Quarter (bio 10) Mean Temperature of Coldest Quarter (bio 11) Precipitation of the Driest Month (bio 14) We used the resulting distribution models for A lechuguilla to visualize the changes in suitable climatic conditions (climate suitability) to which populations may have been subjected since the Last Interglacial period we extracted the climatic suitability values through time (i.e. PRE) for those grid-cells associated with the occurrence localities of sampled populations being 0 no suitability and 1 the maximum suitability To account for the possible bias of using a single grid cell to characterize the climate suitability of populations’ localities we generated 100 replicates of sample localities by adding random noise to the populations’ geographic coordinates within a buffer of ∼10 km2 (0.08°) centered on the sampling locality we estimated the half sample mode (HSM) of the suitability values across replicates to visualize the changes in climatic conditions through time We estimated the variance of environmental variables (i.e., climate and altitude) for sampled populations of A. kerchovei and A. lechuguilla (Scheinvar et al., 2017). We used the 19 climate layers obtained from the WorldClim database (Hijmans et al., 2005) and the GTOPO30 global digital elevation model (DEM) from the USGS-EROS Data Center we extracted the data for those grid-cells associated with the occurrence localities of sampled populations we accounted for the possible bias of using a single grid cell to characterize the environment of populations by generating 100 replicates of sampled localities Populations of A. lechuguilla were assigned into four different groups according to their geographic location and genetic composition (Scheinvar et al., 2017), whereas populations of A. kerchovei were treated as a single group (Table 1) We approximated the environmental variance by performing a Principal Component Analyses on populations’ environmental conditions and estimating the variance for the first two principal components We tested the correlation between environmental variance and genetic diversity (i.e. nucleotide and haplotype diversity) among the five groups of populations using simple linear regression we used the components of the environmental PCA as predictors and the indices of genetic diversity as response variables Total nucleotide diversity (π) was low (0.00078) with most populations having null nucleotide diversity The prevalence of private haplotypes within populations resulted in a high genetic differentiation (FST = 0.928) there are no significant differences comparing NST (0.943) vs suggesting lack of phylogeographic structure a Mantel test was not significant (data not shown) which suggests that there is no evidence of isolation by distance in A Results of analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) of the analyzed populations of A The predictive performance of the bioclimatic models was adequate with an AUC > 0.82 across replicates. The projected distribution for A. kerchovei during the LIG shows the most restricted distribution across all the time periods analyzed, where ideal climate conditions for the species were geographically restricted to an area equivalent to 75% of the present-day distribution (Figure 3) the LGM witnessed a significant geographical expansion in the ideal climate conditions for A which were broadened by 522% relative to the present-day distribution The projected models then predicted a geographical contraction for A kerchovei during the MH (93% relative to the present-day) with this geographical extent remaining stable ever since Our models revealed two main areas that have remained more or less stable and isolated from each other: (1) the Tehuacán Valley in the North and (2) the Central Valleys of Oaxaca in the South Geographical projections of the ecological niche model for Agave kerchovei for the present-day and the Last Interglacial (LIG ∼110 kya) Shaded areas in past models represent the projected areas potentially inhabited by the species Black circles represent the populations sampled for the present study (eight populations) White circles represent the occurrence records used to construct the ecological niche models (37 records) Figure 4. Climatic suitability through time estimated across sampled populations of Agave kerchovei and A. lechuguilla using the projections of the species’ ecological niche models. (A) Distribution of climatic suitability values through time within the five groups of populations of Agave kerchovei and A. lechuguilla. (B) Climatic suitability values through time for the eight sampled populations of A. kerchovei. Population names as in Table 1 The first two components of the PCA on environmental variables for A kerchovei explained 46.18% and 21.07% of the total climatic variance The first PCA was most strongly positively correlated with annual precipitation whereas it showed the most negative correlation with summer temperature the second PCA was most positively correlated with winter precipitation and negatively with winter temperature and precipitation seasonality (data not shown) Environmental variance observed across sampled populations of Agave kerchovei and A (A,B) Environmental values in the two species of Agave obtained from the scores for the first two principal components of the environmental principal component analysis (PC1ENV (C,D) Relationship between environmental variance (PC1ENV and PC2ENV) and haplotype diversity estimated for the five groups of populations Dashed line depicts linear regression models Circle size is proportional to sample size (n) Principal component analyses of environmental preferences for Agave kerchovei and A and (B) loading plot for the first two principal components (PC1ENV nucleotide diversity did not show a significant correlation with environmental variance Pleistocene glacial cycles had an important role in the distribution of A and climatic variability appears to have had a significant effect on the levels of genetic diversity and differentiation among populations the species’ core distribution area within the Tehuacán Valley appears to have remained relatively stable over the last ∼6 kya whereas peripheric populations outside the Valley have been subjected to more climatic instability Genetic differentiation was high in A. kerchovei (FST = 0.928, GST = 0.824). High genetic structure using similar chloroplast sequences was also found in A. striata (FST = 0.929, GST = 0.697; Martínez-Ainsworth, 2013) and A. stricta (FST = 0.944, GST = 0.898; Martínez-Ainsworth, 2013), but it was lower in A. lechuguilla (GST = 0.780; Scheinvar, 2018; Scheinvar et al., 2017) suggesting that the environment is different and in consequence local adaptation could also differ In order to better asses the importance of asexual reproduction it will be relevant to use in the future nuclear DNA to better disentangle the roles of seed and clonal reproduction with a contraction in the MH and remaining stable until the present This differentiation could represent a process of incipient speciation which is the most isolated at the eastern and southernmost extreme of its distribution haplotype 2 is the most common and according to the network it can be considered as the ancestral haplotype suggesting this area could be the ancestral area of the distribution When we compare temporal variation in climatic suitability in A lechuguilla from the Chihuahuan Desert and in A we can appreciate temporal changes appear to be very different in northern populations of A but not in the southernmost populations of the species which show a climate suitability trend resembling the one observed for A We suggest that the Tehuacán Valley together with the southernmost portion of the Chihuahuan Desert have been regions with climatic conditions suitable for the survival of Agave species through the last 110,000 years Our results suggest that Pleistocene climate fluctuations and the resulting contraction and expansion of A kerchovei populations have led to changes in population sizes in which both genetic drift and the subsequent expansion of the distribution were probably important factors in generating the currently observed genetic structure The high environmental variance observed among populations of A kerchovei is reflected in high levels of among population differentiation probably due to the geographical isolation of populations within and outside the Tehuacán Valley topographic complexity through its effects on climatic variability appears to have a significant impact on the levels of genetic diversity and structure among populations kerchovei we have a core group of populations in the Tehuacán Valley and peripheric populations that seem to be evolving independently kerchovei is basically an endemic species from the Tehuacán Valley and that populations outside the Valley are in the process of incipient speciation Sequences were deposited at NCBI GenBank (KX444126–KX444129 genetic analysis and the design of some figures and helped in drafting and correcting sections of the manuscript RL-S contributed with logistics and ideas for the design of the project This work was funded by CONACYT Investigación Científica Básica 2011.167826 (clave de identificación oficial CB2011/167826) Genómica de poblaciones: estudios en el maíz silvestre by the Project “Conservación de semillas de plantas útiles de San Rafael MGU-Useful Plants Project México,” with the support of the Kew Botanical Gardens and by funding (operating budget) from the Instituto de Ecología We thank the Laboratorio de Evolución Molecular y Experimental of the Instituto de Ecología. 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Tehuacán-Cuicatlán México City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Google Scholar Vallejo-Marín The ecological and evolutionary consequences of clonality for plant mating doi: 10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.110308.120258 Species distribution modelling as a macroecological tool: a case study using New World amphibians Estimating F−statistics for the analysis of population structure Keywords: Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Lira-Saade R and Eguiarte LE (2020) Phylogeography and Genetic Diversity in a Southern North American Desert: Agave kerchovei From the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley Copyright © 2020 Aguirre-Planter, Parra-Leyva, Ramírez-Barahona, Scheinvar, Lira-Saade and Eguiarte. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Rafael Lira-Saade, cmxpcmFAdW5hbS5teA==; Luis E. Eguiarte, ZnJ1bnNAdW5hbS5teA==; ZnJ1bnNAc2Vydmlkb3IudW5hbS5teA== On 3 December, countries adopted the Cancun Declaration, named after the Mexican city where the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) The Declaration represents an unprecedented recognition from the international community that biodiversity protection must involve different governmental and economic sectors and not just environment ministries “The Cancun Declaration, and the powerful commitments made here at the High Level Segment send a strong signal that countries are ready to achieve the Aichi Targets,,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias referring to the 20 biodiversity targets that Parties to the CBD are meant to achieve by 2020 During the two-day High-Level Segment of the meeting known COP13 countries participated in roundtables discussing how the fisheries forestry and agricultural sectors can take biodiversity into account and how they can contribute to its protection and conservation “For the first time, through the efforts of all parties, we are really speaking meaningfully to one another about the real value of biodiversity to tourism, to agriculture, to forestry, to fisheries – to the very lifeblood of our economies,” said Erik Solheim, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) various countries announced on Saturday their own commitments to accelerate action to meet the Targets' deadline in less than four years during which 113 companies made a collective commitment to take biodiversity considerations into account in their decision-making and invest in biodiversity protection “Many businesses have realized that investing in biodiversity makes sense,” said Deputy Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme “The involvement of the private sector is something we need and we welcome.” “We all want the same thing: a healthy planet that provides for all our needs and those of future generations,” Mr. Dias said at a press briefing on Saturday evening. “We must use the conference to prepare for the transformation that is needed to achieve the Aichi Targets, the Sustainable Development Goals and our long-term vision of living in harmony with nature.” The UN Biodiversity conference continues until 17 December 2016 It’s a few minutes before noon in Tehuacán My friend and I are meeting our guide Martín for a tour of…well…cacti My 15 years of working in the travel industry have rendered me a serious skeptic of most tour experiences and my internal judge is chattering a mile a minute: “The meeting point isn’t clear no one asked about food sensitivities even though lunch is included….” I shut my inner voice up with a simple “You’re in Mexico let it go” as we pull up to a nondescript bodega with Mountain Dew-colored walls park the car and start walking toward our guide’s location I spot him immediately – an unusually tall man (for these parts) wearing a straw cowboy hat an outfit quite practical for a day in the sun The day’s schedule had been sent to me in advance: A visit to Zapotitlán Salinas a UNESCO World Heritage Site; lunch at a small local restaurant in Tehuacán; time at a pottery studio in Los Reyes Metzontla; a walk at dusk through the Bosque de los Sotolines Each stop was to be followed by drives through the cactus reserve. I’m both intrigued and anxious. This is Day 4 of an action-packed 8-day road trip and not only am I tired but my ability to translate Spanish is hit-or-miss right now the accumulated items to be expected in a car destined for a road trip I take the back seat and change from sandals to sneakers as we make our way to the salt mines The Tehuacán-Cuicatlan Biosphere is a protected ecological reserve encompassing 145,255 hectares (359,000 acres) of dense cactus forest There are more than 2,500 reported species of cacti I become increasingly aware of how regal and imposing these plants can be protruding from the ground in clusters like candles on a rolling green birthday cake some spherical like beach balls and several resemble engorged stars and I find myself drifting between Martín’s explanations and this otherworldly land of alien flora We arrive at Zapotitlán Salinas and meet Juan Diego Juan Diego and his predominantly male team continue the tradition of artisanal salt production The team is small because the product’s price margin is too low to afford to pay more workers The salinas (salt flats) have been operating for over 2,000 years After buying myself an unnecessary kilo of salt we continue on to lunch which is set to include local treats: insects My friend and I politely but firmly clarify that despite our full understanding that bugs are considered a delicacy I feel at this point that adding my pseudo-veganism to the mix will further exacerbate the situation and resolve to eat around whatever meat I’m served the three of us hop back in the car for a visit to Los Reyes Metzontla blessing it with rich clay deposits that artisans use to make pottery accompanied by several children and a puppy who spend their days creating and selling stunning pieces of crockery in a variety of earthy colors.After showing us the step-by-step process What looks relatively simple is far from it my attempt at a bowl quickly turns into an ashtray and then back into a ball of clay I instead buy a gorgeous water jug to lug home The final stop is a walk through the Bosque de Sotolines named after the sotolín or Elephant Foot variety of tree Manuelo takes us on a journey through the medicinal psychedelic and cultural importance of a variety of greenery that I never knew existed We see agave plants the size of a small car leaves whose medicinal properties range from settling upset stomachs to getting rid of oral infections and thriving Elephant Foot trees that have been standing proud since long before Hernán Cortés’ arrival I am suddenly struck by the magnitude of what Mexico actually is; Mexico is everything it’s artisanal potters and it’s Carlos Slim It’s truly an incredible place and I’m here for all of it Where to stay: While the city of Tehuacán has significantly more options, we opted to stay at Hotel San Martín in Zapotitlán located on a lively little square with next to nothing to do after dark, because by the end of our journey through the biosphere How to book: Online at Bio Fan’s website or through Instagram My experience with the company was very positive they were easy to book with and provided excellent service ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC Ancient stone tools discovered 50 years ago inside a cave throughout Poland have recently been recognized as being among the greatest ever unearthed in the region As Science Alert reported the tools discovered inside the Tunel Wielki cave in Maopolska date back somewhere around 450,000 and 550,000 years This dating could assist researchers in discovering more about humans who created them as well as about their movement of people and human settlements in Central Europe throughout prehistory The timeframe suggests that the techniques were made by the eradicated humankind which is thought to have been the final common heritage of Neanderthals as well as modern humans it implies that humans inhabited the region at a time when Central Europe's environmental condition would have necessitated substantial physical and cultural adaptation This is a very interesting factor of the studies for the experts as explained by archaeologist Magorzata Kot of the University of Warsaw in Poland to Science in Poland Researchers as told could indeed investigate the boundaries of Homo heidelbergensis's survival potentials and thus see how they adjusted to these harsh conditions Tunel Wielki cave is been unearthed in the 1960s Material layers have been dated to the Holocene period which began approximately 11,700 years back archaeologist Claudio Berto of the University of Warsaw believed the dating contradicted his observations He concluded that the animal bones retrieved from the premises were about obviously longer than 40,000 years As a result, which was shown in the Scientific Reports Kot as well as her team brought back to the cave in 2018 They resumed and lengthened one of their trenches cautiously inspecting the various layers of material that had accumulated over time and trying to collect the most bone component to analyze Experts we also able discovered that the top levels did matter of fact comprise the bones of animals from this same Late Pleistocene and Holocene epochs It comprised the bone fragments of several species that inhabited half a million years ago Panthera gombaszoegensis; the Mosbach wolf an ancestor to modern gray wolves; and Deninger's bear The surface that produced the bones also had flint knapping evidence, such as flint flakes, fragments from which additional equipment can also be molded, and cores from which they were struck. There also completed tools like weapons, the news media site - Headtopics reported there's only 2 main locations in Poland with resources from the relatively similar time frame: Trzebnica and Rusko There are numerous archaeological locations in the area that present indications of ancient human presence Humidity and low temperatures would make that difficult We discovered evidence that people who lived there was using fire which likely helped to tone down such dark and humid surroundings © 2025 NatureWorldNews.com All rights reserved Metrics details Arid and semi-arid areas are among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve (TCBR) is an arid and semi-arid area with high biological diversity and human settlements of eight ethnic groups which are not subject to water quality monitoring by government agencies; however measures of water quality of these rivers are needed to focus conservation actions on this resource This work aimed to test the effectiveness of participatory water quality monitoring with the participation of three actors: Reserve management leaders to monitoring water quality in the rivers of the TCBR Ninety-two residents were trained to carry out water quality biomonitoring using the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) index calibrated for the reserve The BMWP uses macroinvertebrate families to display numerical and categorical water quality scores the Water Quality Index (WQI) was assessed and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of the riparian zones was estimated in each study site The mean WQI scores were 69.24 for RS (no treatment necessary for most crops and necessary treatment for public water supply) and 75.16 for RG (minor purification for crops requiring high-quality water and necessary treatment for public water supply) The BMWP showed five water quality categories (Excellent showing higher water quality scores in the upper portion of the basins and capable of discriminating study sites with lower scores close to human settlements data from participatory monitoring impelled actions taken to address a pollution source and influenced policy focus reaching the maximum level of participatory-based monitoring This led to avoid the discharge of wastewater into the river to conserve and protect the water resource the latter was far more sensitive to detecting areas affected by domestic water discharges The NDVI presented low values for the TCBR Although the NDVI showed a weak relationship with BMWP values areas with higher NDVI values generally achieved higher BMWP values The results of this study highlight the high sensitivity of the BMWP to detect several water quality conditions in the rivers running through the TCBR when compared to WQI the usefulness of biomonitoring using the BMWP index was evident as well as the importance of the participation of local inhabitants contributing to the knowledge of water quality in biosphere reserves and carrying out timely measures that allow the rivers in these reserves to be maintained in good condition the agency responsible for monitoring water quality in México This lack of water quality data limits the development of effective resource management strategies particularly in remote regions (far from large cities) that require water for different uses the local inhabitants have expressed a legitimate interest in knowing the water quality of their rivers and streams which are tributaries of Río Salado and Río Grande The engagement of indigenous peoples in participatory monitoring represents an opportunity to carry out water quality assessments in regions that lack water quality monitoring stations This would increase the coverage of the monitoring area in the TCBR filling current knowledge gaps on water quality local communities would gain the ability to make decisions about the use of water resources to explore the relationship of the physicochemical condition with the bioindication assessment and analyze the influence of riparian vegetation on the physicochemical and biological water quality we discuss the advantages of participatory monitoring with the joint participation of various stakeholders to obtain reliable information on water quality that can inform sustainable management plans for water resources for the TCBR Hydrographic systems in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve and study sites. The map was generated using the vectorial layers freely available from National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/mapadigital), National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (http://sig.conanp.gob.mx/website/pagsig/info_shape.htm) all layers underwent processing through the open source software Geographic Information System QGIS 3.34 QGIS is licensed under the General Public License (GNU) which permits the acquisition of its source code through tarballs or the Git repository The study sites' coordinates were collected using a handheld Monterra® | Garmin GPS device The collected macroinvertebrate samples were transferred to the Laboratory of Aquatic Ecosystem Health Assessment at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional The collected organisms were fixed in 70% alcohol and transported to the laboratory for sorting and taxonomic identification The participatory biomonitoring sites were studied in the dry and rainy seasons (from 2017 to 2019 and from 2021 to 2022) The results are reported as the average of both study periods the following environmental factors were recorded in situ: atmospheric temperature (°C with a thermometer included in the EXTECH® anemometer); and water temperature (°C) and conductivity (mS/cm) (using a Quanta® multiparameter probe) Stream flow velocity (m/s) was recorded with a portable HACH® flow meter and geographic coordinates were recorded with a Sport Trak Maguellan® GPS two 500 mL water samples were collected for water quality assessments in addition a water sample of 10 mL in Whirl–Pak bags was taken for bacteriological testing The samples were transported in the dark and refrigerated for laboratory tests and color (U Pt–Co) were determined according to the Hach DR 3900 spectrophotometer techniques The bioindication values of the BMWP represent the tolerance to organic pollution ranging from 1 (highly tolerant) to 10 (highly sensitive) The BMWP value of a study site is the sum of the bioindication values for all the families present in it The BMWP values are represented as the average of the dry and rainy seasons Physicochemical data recorded in situ and analyzed in the laboratory were used to determine the Water Quality Index (WQI) of Dinius22 which is a multiplicative index that includes 11 physicochemical variables and two microbiological variables (atmospheric and water temperature \(\prod\nolimits_{i = 1}^{n} {}\) = represents the operation of multiplying together all terms immediately following it The WQI grades six water uses (Public Water Supply, Recreation, Fish, Shellfish, Agriculture, and Industry), assigning different water quality categories according to the use of water. The present work considered only the Public Water Supply and Agriculture uses (Refer to the Supplementary Table 2) both suggested 90 m buffers as optimal to achieve the highest possible sediment and nutrient removal efficiency which is relevant for pollution mitigation in the rivers studied by them We use 120 m due to the possible presence of low slope areas that could generate larger riparian zones on both bank sides of the stream Data were obtained from the free-access sources EO Browser and ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov based on Sentinel 2 imagery for the period of September 2016 to September 2019 All the gathered images met the criteria of 0% to 10% cloudiness The NDVI is the difference between the reflectance values of bands 8 (near infrared) and 4 (visible–red) divided by the sum of the reflectance values of these two bands: where NDVI = Normalized Difference Vegetation Index NIR = Reflectance values of the Near-Infrared band R = Reflectance values of the red band in the visible spectrum The mean NDVI values for both seasons studied are represented in bar graphs of the study sites by sub-basins a validation test of the BMWP was carried out using water quality variables from the study sites RB considering only those variables used as qualifiers in the BMWP calibration process (salinity a multiple linear regression was carried out with water quality variables as predictor variables and observed BMWP (BMWPobs) as the dependent variable The resulting equation allowed us to calculate BMWP (BMWPcalc) values for each site With the observed and calculated BMW values a scatterplot was elaborated and a linear regression was obtained with its 95% confidence intervals a data normality test was carried out and the differences between sub-basins and between periods were tested through an ANOVA previous homoscedasticity test; these analyses were performed with the XLSTAT software ver BMWP and WQI values are presented in bar plots with SE An ordination analysis (PCA) of the study sites was carried out considering the BMWP and NDVI values as attributes of each study site The PCA was performed using the Pearson correlation coefficient with the XLSTAT software ver with the names of the localities that participated in the workshops) The adults who participated included municipal authorities It was agreed that the 92 trained people from 22 local communities would be facilitators to share their knowledge with other members of their communities to increase the number of citizens trained in the application of the BMWP an increasing number of participants assisted in sampling at different sites of the TCBR hydrological systems for a total of 143 active persons in participatory monitoring including the three types of participants: park rangers and municipal authorities (government) The family-level identification of specimens collected by the participants and the final BMWP scores were validated in the laboratory by academics using specialized dichotomous keys and the training materials provided to citizen participants The information produced by academics and through participatory monitoring was analyzed after validation (a) For each study site in the Río Salado and Río Grande sub-basins Water quality categories: (dark blue) Excellent SE analysis and plot construction were conducted using the Microsoft Excel software from Microsoft Corporation (2018) BMWP values by season at the participatory monitoring sites for the Río Salado sub-basin in the dry season of 2021 and the rainy season of 2022 The plot construction were conducted using the Microsoft Excel software from Microsoft Corporation (2018) In the Río Salado sub-basin, the WQI fluctuated from 57.89 to 85.89; in the Río Grande sub-basin, from 70.40 to 82.18 (Fig. 4a). The mean WQI values in the dry and rainy seasons for the Río Salado sub-basin (69.24 ± 2.29) were lower than those for the Río Grande sub-basin (75.16 ± 1.16); these differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). (a) Mean WQI values (dry and rainy seasons) for the Río Salado and Rio Grande study sites (b) Mean WQI values for the dry and rainy seasons in the Río Salado and Río Grande sub-basins p > 0.05 (Bars indicate the standard error) SE analysis and plots construction were conducted using the Microsoft Excel software from Microsoft Corporation (2018) The mean WQI per season showed that Río Salado reached a slightly higher value (70.83) in the rainy season, with an Acceptable water quality category, than that of the dry season (68.48), with Mild contamination category (Fig. 4b) In the Río Salado sub-basin, The WQI returned only two categories, regardless of the use of water for irrigation (No Treatment Necessary for Most Crops and Regular and Minor Purification for Crops Requiring High-Water Quality) or for human consumption (Necessary Treatment Becoming More Extensive and Minor Purification Required) (Fig. 5a,b) the persons in charge of participatory monitoring identified the main issues affecting water quality and small runoff from upstream town discharges The validation process to obtain the value of BMWPcalc from the environmental variables returned a coefficient of determination R2 of 0.519 (calculated vs observed) Linear regression of BMWP (observed vs Blue dots are study sites for BMWP calibration; red dots are study sites included in the participatory monitoring The statistical software XLSTAT was used to create the current plot under licensed Lumivero (2019) Since participatory monitoring sites were not included in the BMWP calibration these sites are considered external to the model by using the model with the results of participatory monitoring and finding that the points fall within its 95% confidence interval it is demonstrated that the model fits the participatory monitoring sites As these sites comprise a larger geographic area than that used for calibration the use of the BMWP index is validated over a larger geographic area the BMWP index can be used with confidence in a larger area in the TCBR with no recalibration required at this time the study site that recorded the lowest observed BMWP values was Santa María Texcatitlán (SMT) the former site and Cascada Cola de Serpiente CCS are study sites that need management to improve water quality NDVI values for study sites in the Río Salado and Río Grande sub-basins (a) Mean NDVI values for each study site (dry and rainy seasons) (b) Overall mean NDVI values for the Río Salado and Rio Grande sub-basins (c) Mean NDVI values sorted according to the dry and rainy seasons for each sub-basin The statistical analysis was performed using the statistical software XLSTAT under licensed Lumivero (2019) The analysis by season (dry and rainy seasons) reveals higher NDVI values in the rainy season in both sub-basins, with the highest value in Río Grande (\(\overline{X}\) = 0.74 ± 0.11 in Río Grande and \(\overline{X}\) = 0.633 ± 0.07 in Río Salado); in the dry season, the lowest values were recorded in Río Salado (\(\overline{X}\) = 0.20 ± 0.074) (Fig. 7c) Ordination of TCBR study sites in both study seasons according to their BMWP Letters after the study site acronym represent the dry season (DS) and the rainy season (RS) The analysis and plot was performed and created using the statistical software XLSTAT under licensed Lumivero (2019) These authors reported the effectiveness of natural areas to preserve the favorable state of running water ecosystems and concluded that limiting hydrological alterations increases the resilience of aquatic communities these findings highlight the resilience of this section of the river The study site “Cascada Cola de Serpiente CCS” has a Poor category and currently the municipal authorities are involved to reactivate the operation of a wastewater treatment plant in the town and thus improve the quality of the water at this study site On the other hand, according to English et al.35 the so-called “Pyramid of participatory research approaches” involves three levels of public participation citizens only focus on data collection; at the second level citizens also participate in defining the issue; last the so-called “extreme” participatory monitoring considers that citizens engage in the analysis and interpretation of the data This last level is desirable in all participatory monitoring the “Las Regaderas” study site resulted in reaching the top of the pyramid because the detection of Poor water quality at that site prompted citizens to take actions to recover the river This process led to the success of the participatory biomonitoring of the TCBR where local inhabitants not only assisted in the monitoring process and learned to evaluate water quality but also participated in management by promoting its recovery and prevented any further deterioration in that section of the river The study site Cascada Cola de Serpiente is considered in a program to improve its water quality who pointed out that the fluvial corridors of the endogenous rivers (Río Salado sub-basin) are subjected to more drastic processes and conditions than exogenous fluvial corridors (Río Grande sub-basin) protecting riparian vegetation in the TCBR is highly relevant for promoting Good water quality in the river systems this instrument includes the strategy to define the priority lines of research and monitoring and sets the bases of collaboration with academic institutions and universities regarding the production the Directorate of the TCBR has incorporated the research and monitoring of water bodies through the BMWP methodology in the Annual Operating Program (POA)—the budgetary instrument that defines the annual planning of activities the Directorate Reserve Management ensures continued participatory water quality monitoring within the TCBR allocating resources on an annual basis in which park rangers and native peoples participate with the academic support of our working group BMWP was a suitable tool to evaluate water quality in rivers flowing through the TCBR with a higher sensitivity and more cost-effective than WQI Participatory monitoring in this reserve began with the training of the local inhabitants and advanced to the top of the pyramid of participatory research approaches which was successful in managing the recovery of a site previously affected by wastewater discharges participatory monitoring contributed to scientific knowledge which led to the empowerment of indigenous inhabitants to implement actions seeking the recovery of the most affected site This case showed that the rivers in the TCBR have a high potential for recovery and resilience the water quality of rivers flowing through the TCBR is Good demonstrating the efficiency of the management and conservation plan carried out in this reserve The PCA showed that the WQI is strongly related to the BMWP; however the BMWP was much more sensitive in detecting areas affected by domestic wastewater discharges and did not show a close relationship with BMWP values areas with higher NDVI values generally showed higher BMWP values The results of the present study highlight the usefulness of biomonitoring and the contribution of local inhabitants to monitor water quality in biosphere reserves and implement timely measures to keep rivers in good condition The participatory monitoring described here succeeded in converting the TCBR from an area lacking scientific knowledge on water quality to a natural protected area with in-depth spatial and temporal monitoring of water quality supported by bioindication The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request The future of semi-arid regions: A weak fabric unravels Community-based groundwater and ecosystem restoration in semi-arid north Rajasthan (3): Evidence from remote sensing Egoh, B. 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Volume 9 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.682207 The ways traditional rural communities conduct activities to meet their livelihoods commonly contribute to conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem functions Traditional agroforestry systems (TAFS) are expressions of management that deliberately retain wild vegetation coexisting with crops to obtain multiple socio-ecological contributions processes enhancing productive intensification endanger their permanence This study aimed to 1) identify the peasants’ motivations to maintain the vegetation of tropical dry forest within their agricultural fields 2) analyze the capacity of TAFS to provide contributions to people’s well-being and 3) identify factors and processes limiting conservation capacities and possible alternatives The study was conducted in three communities of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley We performed a qualitative analysis with information from two workshops with local people 10 semi-structured interviews with managers of TAFS we: 1) generated a list of central themes based on the data collected 2) established preliminary categories of such themes 3) coded all information through the Atlas 4) adjusted the classification of categories and codes to the data 5) grouped codes and analyzed their relationships We found that the peasants’ motivations to maintain the wild vegetation are the provision of multiple beneficial contributions: material (edible fruit which meet some of their fundamental needs (primarily subsistence The main reasons for keeping the wild vegetation were material contributions (62%) we observed that TAFS safeguarding a higher forest cover and species diversity provide a broader range of socio-ecological contributions and potential to satisfy human needs than those with lower cover Peasant agriculture may allow maintaining biodiversity while satisfying fundamental human needs The agroecological management implemented by peasants in TAFS is crucial for ensuring the continuity of essential environmental functions and people’s well-being it is necessary to design alternative production systems to provide goods while maintaining their capacity to conserve biodiversity and environmental functions TAFS are living laboratories of biodiversity and ecosystem management that generate agrobiodiversity or other tangible elements from nature that directly sustain people’s life); 2) nonmaterial contributions (nature’s effects on subjective or psychological aspects underpinning people’s well-being; giving the opportunity of recreation and social cohesion); and 3) regulating contributions (functional and structural aspects of organisms and ecosystems that influence environmental conditions experienced by people and/or regulate the generation of material and nonmaterial contributions) Such contributions provide the satisfaction of fundamental human needs as those pointed out by Max-Neef et al. (1998) These authors distinguish between fundamental human needs (essential human requirements and potentialities common to all cultures in all historical periods) and satisfiers of such needs (different ways or means selected by each culture to satisfy needs) food and shelter should not be considered needs to be viable require to be compatible with the culture and wishes of those that directly manage the local ecosystems this study seeks to deepen the understanding of the most determinant motivations for maintaining vegetation in the peasants’ parcels and the contribution of their TAFS to human well-being which do not aspire to represent the state of agriculture and agricultural practices in the study area but to understand processes and interrelationships influencing the management practices for conservation of forest cover in agricultural plots understanding the multiple phenomena operating in a complex system of processes and factors motivating management decisions that influence the ecological expression of the agroforestry systems studied To conserve such biological and cultural richness, the region was decreed as a Biosphere Reserve in 1998, and then inscribed in the List of World Heritage (cultural and natural) of the UNESCO in 2018, due to the extraordinary values of the natural environments and cultural Mesoamerican traditions. In addition, the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley has been cataloged as one of the 23 Priority Biocultural Regions for Conservation of Mexico (Boege, 2008) FIGURE 1. Location of the communities where the study was conducted in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. Based on Google Earth Pro and Vallejo et al. (2015) The fieldwork started with exploratory visits to study communities and asking permission from local communitarian authorities to carry out the research We also visited the authorities of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve to inform us about our research project People interviewed included two women and eight men 29–81 years old (average 60 years) from February 2018 to August 2019; 2) two workshops with local people from the community of Quiotepec (with the participation of 13 young and adult people) about “benefits of wild plants” the elaboration of free lists about nature’s contributions and the agricultural calendar followed by the community The workshops were conducted as an additional technique to the interviews that served to complement and triangulate the information obtained through interviews The workshops were based on guiding questions about the contributions that vegetation makes –and that motivate its conservation within the TAFS– as well as about the seasonality of agricultural activities carried out throughout the year (e.g People’s responses were recorded on flip charts for subsequent systematization and analysis Interviews and workshops provided more than 25 h of audio recording which were transcribed to be analyzed; 3) participant observation in communitarian activities (e.g and funerary rites); 4) informal talks with peasants during forest walks sharing of food or resting in their homes; and 5) registering notes in a fieldwork diary General diagram explaining the peasants’ motivations for maintaining wild vegetation within traditional agroforestry systems in the Cañada region The blue box indicates the central research question: What motivates peasants to maintain wild vegetation within their agricultural fields The green rectangles contain the main categories that emerged in the qualitative analysis conducted through Atlas The yellow boxes contain the main subcategories involved in Lines and arrows indicate relations and causative directions “What for sowing a «cucharito» (the legume tree Acacia cochliacantha) if it does not provide benefit You have to sow a lemon tree to obtain a product … a mango a chicozapote which give something”; “Herb that does not serve why do I leave them?”; “I prefer trees that provide something –and although they do provide nothing either way– I left them standing so that they continue living” The peasants’ foremost motivations to maintain wild vegetation within their agricultural fields are the provision of several beneficial contributions that meet some of their fundamental needs (Figure 2; Supplementary Material). These beneficial contributions represent the most recorded contributions (83%, Figure 3) We identified that obtaining material contributions represents the peasants’ main reasons to maintain plant components of TDF (62%) These were followed by regulating contributions (20%) Main beneficial contributions –motivating the maintenance of native vegetation from the tropical dry forest– referred by peasants in the Cañada region Some outstanding material contributions that motivate the maintenance of native plants from tropical dry forests in the Cañada region Provision of edible fruit and stems: “tunillo” Stenocereus stellatus* (A) “biznaga” Ferocactus recurvus* (B) “tempesquistle” Sideroxylon palmeri* (C) “nopal de cruz” Acanthocereus subinermis* (D) Medicinal plants: “cuachalalá” Amphipterygium adstringens(E) “mala mujer” Cnidoscolus tubulosus(F) Contributions of vegetation to local people’s well-being through the satisfaction of some fundamental human needs in the Cañada region All these contributions of vegetation to the well-being of local people help to meet fundamental needs of subsistence, protection, and identity, but also others like affection, understanding, creation, participation, and leisure. We can visualize a direct relation between the number of contributions and the capacity to meet fundamental human needs (Table 1) A few detrimental contributions of vegetation (17%) were referred to by peasants: 1) competence with crops for space and/or nutrients (primarily species with high reproductive success like “guaje” Leucaena leucocephala “mantecoso” Parkinsonia praecox “mezquite” Prosopis laevigata “guamúchil” Pithecellobium dulce and other legume trees); 2) the forest cover represents habitat of undesirable animal species since their damage to crops (e.g birds like “chiquitón” Melanerpes hypopolius recognized as a seed consumer ants Atta mexicana which cut flowers of some crops or the coati Nasua narica which consume maize); 3) potential risk of injured due to breaking of branches and stems of giant plants (like the columnar cacti “cardón” Pachycereus weberi and “tetecho” Neobuxbaumia tetetzo); and 4) the presence of thorny plants hurting and making arduous agricultural labors (especially the “chile de perro” Opuntia pubescens “cocoche loco” Opuntia decumbens “uñas de gato” Mimosa lactiflua and the “mala mujer” Cnidoscolus tubulosus) Relation between the percentage of forest cover and number of contributions of vegetation to peasants managing traditional agroforestry systems –in three communities from the Cañada region The words in quotation marks correspond to the local names of the studied traditional agroforestry systems “The doctor does not eat his medicines from the peasants’ work who sow maize and beans...”; “Having maize and beans we are saved”; “I never added chemical but only organic fertilizer”; “The «creole» (native) maize does not have chemicals which are spatially and temporally complementary as well as livestock and free raising of goats in forest areas A fundamental aspect in the continuity of the peasant condition is the permanence and regeneration of the traditional ecological knowledge, which involves the set of beliefs and knowledge on relations of living beings and their environment, transmitted and recreated from generation to generation (Berkes et al., 1994) The peasant knowledge that we documented is characterized by long term planning –based on careful observation and continuous interaction with the natural environment– comprising aspects mainly related to climate forecasting based on a complex interaction of factors and indicators they have a local precise agricultural calendar In the region, agriculture is characterized by the presence of TAFS which are fields irrigated through “apancles” (or irrigation channels) with water from rivers, streams, and springs that allow two cultivation cycles per year (Figure 6) They practice the traditional system of multi-crop “milpa” with native (or “creole”) varieties of maize (white black or “negrito” or “prieto” and squashes (“támala”) mainly destined to direct consumption and They also cultivate fruit trees (especially lemon and spondias plum) destined partly for regional commercialization Traditional agroforestry systems (“milpa” and fruit plantations irrigated with “apancles”) associated with tropical dry forests in the Cañada region People interviewed said to allow their crops coexisting with plants belonging to TDF through different forms of silvicultural management, or in situ management according to Casas et al. (1997): 1) tolerance (leave standing some species of useful plants); 2) promotion or enhancing (increasing the abundance of plants valued for different purposes); 3) protection (eliminating competitors or herbivores providing shade or light by clearing canopy of neighboring plants); and 4) propagation of wild plants locally appreciated through seed sowing planting vegetative structures or transplanting entire individual plants Agroforestry practices implemented by peasants from the Cañada region One of the attributes of the peasant condition favoring the maintenance of biocultural diversity is the agroecological management implemented which comprise: 1) the intergenerational maintenance of agrobiodiversity through selecting and storing native seeds (a practice mainly carried out by women); 2) use of organic manures (goats and bats dung and ash); 3) care of soil fertility by using leaf litter; 4) use of organic conservatives and repellents against pests (e.g latex against ants); 5) the systematic experimentation of interventions on vegetation (e.g to test less toxic pesticides on a few individuals and to record how they respond); and 6) practice of agriculture without external inputs Peasants indicated some advantages of native (also called “creole”) seeds over commercial varieties native seeds have higher resistance and adaptability to the local environments lower cost (since after harvest these are stored for the following agricultural cycle) and lower dependence on agrochemical inputs People consider native seeds better than the commercial ones in appearance flavor (an outstanding aspect of identity and pride) and trees like avocado and papaya had good performance without using agrochemicals the peasant condition involves values expressed in: 1) local myths referring to “enchanted” hills offerings to obtain good harvests permit for using plants; 2) hope (especially to have constant rainy season); 3) gratitude (recognizing the benefits provided by nature and the privilege to have several rivers in a semi-arid region); and 4) admiration (towards ornamental plants women frequently expressed affection and tenderness to the natural environment while men expressed admiration and enthusiasm corruption associated with illegal traffic of species and disputes for territories generating severe conflicts within and between communities (I did not live that) my parents and grandparents talked to me … that they sowed and they did not need neither chemical nor even plow Plants grew big without fertilizers since the Earth was virgin it had natural nutrients”; “We are finishing our lands” We recorded in the Cañada region some indicators of a process of agricultural intensification, which is directed to increase the total volume of agricultural production based on greater input productivity (such as labor, land, time investment, fertilizers, seeds, or cash) (FAO, 2004) we recorded the progressive replacement of native seeds –of maize and beans– by commercial varieties which causes loss of local agrobiodiversity and food autonomy plantations of lemon (Citrus aurantifolia) have increased this represents a profitable crop that allows obtaining continuous (or at least with low uncertainty) monetary incomes throughout the year compared with traditional “milpa” local people started to practice plantations of the mezcal agave “espadín” (Agave angustifolia) since this profitable crop is resistant against drought we documented an active pattern of peasant diversification coexisting with native species of TDF and traditional “milpa” A notorious trend recorded is that in TAFS people are decreasing the forest cover inside their parcels in some cases even expressing disparagement for wild vegetation because they strongly competed with crops for light which can severely limit agricultural activity Removal of TDF occurs in the absence of communitarian agreements to protect it since this responsibility is delegated to the Biosphere Reserve authorities Most people interviewed (80%) have one or two parcels relatively small (average 1.66 ha) which makes it difficult to leave resting the land we recorded a gradient of agricultural intensification characterized by: 1) minimizing manual work and prioritizing monetary income; 2) a devaluation of the crops destined for self-consumption where commercialization is privileged; 3) using fire to land “clearing”; 4) using tractor for soil tilling; 5) use of chemical fertilizers (nitrogenates like urea and ammonium sulfate) and fungicides (sulfured); which are expensive and unhealthy cause a progressive resistance of pests (mainly “gusano cogollero” Spodoptera frugiperda “araña roja” Tetranychus urticae and “cenicilla” caused by fungi of the family Erysiphaceae) and which cause a gradual loss of peasant knowledge and agroecological management there are expressions of peasant agriculture through which people: 1) give priority to native crops for direct consumption; 2) invest a high amount of familiar labor force; 3) use plow to prepare the land (since it allows precise management where it is possible to sow “milpa” intercropped with lemons or other fruit trees); 4) employ traditional tools (mainly the “stake” for sowing the hoe or “talacho” for weeding and the “chicol” for collecting fruit); 5) minimizing the use of agrochemical; 6) reduce pest incidence; and 7) valuing and maintaining in TAFS some components of wild vegetation Agricultural intensification is enhanced also by external factors like the promotion of agrochemical inputs and commercial seeds by the government and technical assistants oriented to productive intensification. Likewise, we identified other factors determining environmental, economic, and social pressures undermining the continuity of the peasant condition (Figure 8) one of the most significant environmental pressures for the continuity of the peasant condition –involving the maintenance of vegetation and its provision contributions– is water scarcity since TAFS depend directly on water from streams and springs This condition is intimately linked to the climatic instability associated with variations in the rainy season which is recognized by local people to have worsened since approximately 1 decade ago Water availability represents a determinant factor favoring agricultural intensification It was recorded that in sites irrigated throughout the year people use to cultivate commercial varieties of “elotero” maize to be consumed as corn on the cob which has high water requirements and agrochemical inputs This crop is destined for commercialization in the region The most remarkable economic pressures are represented by the marked economic limitations of the peasants and the scarce opportunities to find salaried jobs in the communities their dependence on intermediaries (or “coyotes”) who hoard a considerable proportion of profits as well as the investment in inputs and/or services like commercial seeds renting of the machinery and labor hand complementary to activities like sowing and land preparation The most critical social pressures are the abandonment of agriculture linked with migration to find jobs in other regions and the weak generational relief since young people consider agriculture a demanding and tiring activity involving high uncertainty “I hardly take them off: the «mantecoso» «tetechos»… (several species of wild plants) all of them are in my land I do not take them off since they have the right to live”; “Now people of «La Biosfera» (authorities of the Biosphere Reserve) are who forbid to cut down trees”; “We have projects of the Biosphere Reserve to reforestation” The most determining motivations of peasants –to maintain components of wild vegetation within their agricultural fields– are obtaining material contributions These are followed by regulating contributions which mostly provide protection and some nonmaterial contributions that offer opportunities to meet needs for affection (through satisfiers such as admiration If we consider a gradient starting from material contributions (which are clearly useful through regulating contributions (which are involved in generating other contributions) these contributions could represent the means to realize some fundamental needs nonmaterial contributions (which might mistakenly be considered useless and inconspicuous) could constitute some of the ultimate ends of human existence We distinguish the subsistence need, as a particular type of fundamental human need that is really vital, so it is often prioritized over other needs. However, without the satisfaction of the rest of fundamental needs, even if the human person can survive, it will be incomplete and will generate both individual and collective pathologies (Max-Neef et al., 1998) peasant agriculture involves some aspects that make possible the maintenance of native vegetation with principles of respect and reciprocity towards the natural components that emanate from the traditional ecological knowledge of the peasants these peasant interventions in favor of biodiversity conservation and human well-being are threatened by a prevailing model of agricultural intensification and put into practice those expressions of peasant agriculture as well as the implementation of agroforestry practices and forms of silvicultural management which can contribute to satisfy fundamental human needs without drastically and irreversibly deteriorating the natural environment We identified that the principal threat affecting biodiversity conservation in TAFS is agricultural intensification Such intensification is linked to clear environmental pressures such as water scarcity and climate instability where increased availability of water for irrigation increases agricultural intensification there are economic pressures such as the poverty conditions in which many peasants live (in the face of dependence on expensive agroindustrial inputs) and fluctuations in market prices when selling their crops which are exacerbated by the intervention of intermediaries who capture a significant share of the profits that should go to the peasants some peasants expressed their willingness to increase agricultural intensification if they had the financial resources to do so which would undoubtedly reduce the presence of native vegetation on their parcels Serious social pressures also operate on the continuity of the peasant condition which causes the abandonment of agriculture and makes it difficult for the generational relief Furthermore, there are other structural conditions such as the historical marginalization and systematic disarticulation of the peasantry. As well as their struggle for autonomy, which takes place in a context characterized by relationships of dependence and deprivation, as Ploeg (2010) points out in his definition of the peasant condition The decrease in forest cover and species diversity –that commonly occur in the TAFS– also declines the number of contributions (Figure 5) and their potential to meet human needs the removal of wild vegetation from agricultural fields may represent a disadvantageous practice this is a trade-off since wild vegetation limits yield in agricultural production by competing with crops which leads most of them to use practices with varying degrees of intensification to obtain a higher yield in the shortest possible time This is a necessity more than an option of agricultural management –if we take into account the precarious conditions peasants live– a single detrimental contribution of wild vegetation (such as competition with crops) may outweigh the multiple beneficial contributions Motivations for maintaining or removing vegetation are explained more by local contextual circumstances in multiple aspects (political and not only by the valuation of beneficial contributions (material This consideration is fundamental for designing and implementing optimal strategies for both biodiversity conservation and human well-being The underlying reasons and conditions of peasants –whose livelihoods are intrinsically linked to nature– but whose opportunities for planned long-term agroforestry management are extremely limited for the majority must be made visible with the structural conditions of inequity and historical inequality in social sectors of the country such as the peasantry It is essential to contemplate the importance of nature’s contributions for peasants beyond putting our valuations oriented towards biodiversity conservation (e.g the paradox of prioritizing biodiversity conservation when the fundamental need for subsistence is not meet) because it is a fact that the exhausting peasants’ work does not allow conservation to be considered as a priority Any hope for conserving biological diversity is predicated on a concomitant effort to appreciate and protect cultural diversity (Pretty et al., 2009) we delegate a great responsibility to peasants their essential labor is valued and recognized we run the risk of idealizing their way of life pretending that peasants renounce the comforts they could access through the capitalist commodification of their production We expect peasants to carry out a diversified agroecological production, nature-friendly, agrochemical-free, with community organizations linked to markets to supply the cities, etc. although they are the ones who generate and safeguard agrobiodiversity, currently produce the majority of food for human consumption (70%) –compared to industrial agriculture– (Graeub et al., 2016; Shiva, 2016; ETC Group, 2017) and have conserved biocultural diversity for thousands of years Finally, some relevant factors that could explain the continuity of the peasant condition, which has historically prevailed in resistance against the tide, are: 1) the cooperation (with a relative balance between individual and collective interests); 2) the relations of reciprocity and mutual aid; and 3) the dynamics where exchange-values are reinserted into peasant agriculture and converted into use-values, to produce and reproduce their base of resources (Ploeg, 2010) we document that several beneficial contributions of vegetation are not marketable (e.g and these are often undervalued even though they are really essential Considering the trend of productive intensification documented in this study, it would be interesting to try to predict possible scenarios of change of the TAFS in the future. Moreno-Calles et al. (2010); Moreno-Calles et al. (2012) pointed out that TAFS in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley are losing their capability to maintain forest cover mainly because of 1) decreasing amount of land managed by households determined by a progressive fragmentation of the land area given to new families 2) adoption of technologies to intensify agriculture and 3) governmental programs penalizing the presence of vegetation patches within agricultural parcels since they are considered “useless’’ areas There is an unquestionable need for complementary researches between different disciplines and worldviews, since biodiversity conservation issues cannot be addressed only by biological sciences, but must consider all the dimensions that link human societies with natural components (Alves and Albuquerque, 2012) Qualitative studies like the one we report here allow identifying processes and relationships among factors influencing management decisions and their consequence on vegetation cover composition and potential to recover ecosystems Pertinent questions for extensive surveys and sampling methods for rapid diagnoses of agroforestry systems at regional level may be designed based on the researches conducted until now and that is our purpose for further studies The conservation and the sustainable use of nature’s components is determinant for guarantee the well-being of societies. All the social-ecological systems depend on ecosystems and their components to sustain long-term conditions for life (Odum, 1989) Peasant agriculture can maintain biodiversity at the same time satisfying some fundamental human needs The agroecological management implemented by peasants –in traditional agroforestry systems– is very important for ensuring the maintenance of essential environmental functions for humanity’s quality of life on the planet Moreover, beyond commitment and responsibility (with moral-ethical foundations), we need affective relationships of respect and reverence for all expressions of life and nature (including some life-sustaining components, such as water, wind, rocks), since humans and nonhuman entities are interwoven in deep relationships of kinship and reciprocal obligations (Berkes, 2017) We need an active understanding back to the relationships of reciprocity between society and nature Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements Written informed consent for participation was not required for this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements PS-R contributed to the methodological design EG-F and AM-C designed and advised the study All authors read and approved the final manuscript The authors thank the Postgraduate program Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas Mexico for academic and financial support to complete a PhD program of the first author we thank CONACYT (Research Project A1-S-14306); CONABIO (Research project RG023) UNAM (Project IN206520) for financial support of the fieldwork The reviewer MOH declared a shared affiliation with the authors to the handling editor at the time of review The authors thank the peasants of the Cañada region Severiano Villarreal (from Cuicatlán) Jaime Coronado-Martínez (from Dominguillo) and Isidro López (from San José del Chilar) We also thank the 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Volume 9 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.681703 The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve Mexico (TCBR) is the southernmost arid or semi-arid zone with the highest biodiversity in North America and is a UNESCO World Heritage site Two main hydrographic streams cross the TCBR the Salado River (an endogenous river) and the Grande River (an exogenous river) This study investigated temperature anomalies over the past 40 years We analyzed potential differences between sub-basins and riparian areas on both streams using various indices Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Drought Index (NDDI) and analyzed the potential relationship of these indices with climate change Time series of satellite-based precipitation (June 2000–December 2020) and air temperature (January 1980–December 2020) were analyzed A set of Landsat 8 OLI TIRS imagery from the driest and wettest months (2013–2020) was used to estimate NDVI These indices were evaluated separately for the sub-basins and river corridors in the dry and rainy seasons The precipitation records indicate that in the Grande river sub-basin precipitation is higher than in the Salado river sub basin Normalized temperature anomalies and the GWI suggest a warming trend from 1994 to 2020 increasing up to 0.86°C in the Salado River and 0.52°C in the Grande River The Grande and Salado sub basins showed significant differences between dry and wet seasons for each index (NDVI A Discriminant Analysis showed that the Salado sub-basin and the Salado River corridor are associated with severe drying conditions in the dry season (highest NDDI values) the Grande River corridor showed intermediate values of NDVI and NDWI but low values of NDDI The Grande River corridor in the dry season was characterized by intermediate values of NDVI These river corridors provide environmental services in a trade-off with the stream and should be considered biodiversity hotspots Due to the accentuated warming trend and the lowest precipitation the Salado River sub-basin showed desertification signs associated with climate change Both the Salado and the Grande River corridors showed resilience strategies to face climatic conditions river corridors may differ between exogenous and endogenous rivers river corridors are highly important in several processes within drylands Our analysis addresses key questions about river corridors associated with dryland rivers: do fluvial corridors play a similar role in exogenic and endogenic dryland rivers Is global warming affecting fluvial corridors functions in dryland rivers Through these methods and geographic information systems (GIS) we can explore the influence of river corridors on areas adjacent to watercourses which play a central role in arid and semi-arid zones This research focuses on the Tehuacán Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve in Mexico (TCBR). This reserve is part of the Mesoamerican region, considered the southernmost arid or semi-arid zone of the highest biodiversity in North America, designated as a world heritage by UNESCO (2016) Two sub-basins converge in this reserve: the Salado River sub-basin (S) an endogenous river flowing from northwest to southeast is an exogenous river that flows from southeast to northwest The main channels of both sub-basins converge to give rise to the Santo Domingo River; downstream the Salado River is characterized by intermittent flows in its head river and a perennial flow at its middle and lower reaches the Grande River has a perennial flow at all times the TCBR includes both river categories—endogenous and exogenous — a condition that contributes to its heterogeneity There are significant differences in water quality between both sub-basins, including conductivity, salinity, total hardness, and sulfate content; the Salado River shows the highest values of these variables (Lopez-Lopez et al., 2019) We hypothesize that there must be dissimilarities between endogenous and exogenous rivers at the sub-basin level; however river corridors should have similar functions with similar NDVI values but due to dry season and effects of climate change This study explores differences in the riverbanks of the Salado and Grande rivers to investigate the role of intermittent or perennial flows on the maintenance and health status of the respective river corridors through several remote sensing methods and GIS including the application of normalized difference indices such as NDVI we looked for precipitation and temperature trends over the past 20 and 40 years FIGURE 1. (A) Location of the study area, (B) Predominant climate types in the Grande and Salado sub-basins based on García (2004) All spatial analyses were performed using QGIS software V MAi = Normalized Mean Anomaly in year i where MAi−1 is the mean anomaly of the previous year The assessment of NDVI and NDWI used bands 3, 4, and 7 (Green, Red, and Swir, respectively) from Landsat 8 OLI TIRS images, consistent with Tarpley et al. (1984), Gao (1996), and Xu (2006) where NDVI = Normalized Differential Vegetation Index NDWI = Normalized Differential Water Index; B3 and Swir are the respective bands of the Landsat 8 OLI TIRS satellite mission NDVI and NDWI images were sequentially stacked into two time series spanning 7 years (2013–2020) one for the dry season and the other for the wet season the mean profile for each index was derived The Normalized Difference Drought Index (NDDI) was calculated following Gu et al. (2007) using the following equation: The river corridor vector layer for all streams was obtained for each sub-basin with four buffer widths: 50 The polygon vector layers for each sub-basin were clipped against its respective river corridor buffer we obtained the sub-basin layer without the river corridor and the river corridor layer isolated Stacked files for NDVI and NDWI were clipped against both layers (sub-basin and river corridor) to obtain each index The time series for precipitation and temperature were tested with a Mann Kendall test to identify the trends in their respective periods the Mann Kendall test was applied to air temperature anomalies to contrast with the Global Warming Index in each sub-basin Data for spectral indices from each sub-basin were analyzed with and without river corridors for the dry and wet seasons; the same was done for river corridors in each sub-basin The periods analyzed were the dry seasons from 2014 to 2020 and the wet seasons from 2013 to 2019 Differences between river corridors width for each index were explored through a Kruskal Wallis analysis because the data did not fit a normal distribution After selecting the appropriate river corridor width a Kruskal Wallis analysis was applied to identify differences between different categories of each index A Discriminant Analysis was performed to identify similarities or differences between river corridors and their sub-basins and seasons based on NDWI where the Salado river sub basin shows lower precipitation than the Grande river sub basin since records of precipitation during dry season are similar to both sub basins Mean monthly precipitation in the Grande and the Salado sub-basins in the 2000–2020 period Record of precipitation in Salado and Grande sub basins during the remote sensing study period the trend line showed a different slope for each sub-basin denoting faster warming in the Salado River sub-basin than in the Grande River sub-basin Mean annual temperature anomaly and mean annual temperature rise for (A) the Salado River sub-basin and (B) the Grande River sub-basin The Mann-Kendall test was applied to temperature times series in order to identify whether there is a trend in this time series Results indicate that there is a trend with a Sens’s slope of 0.022 (Tau of Kendall = 0.225 p < 0.0001) to the Grande river sub basin and 0.045 in the case of the Salado river sub basin (Tau of Kendall = 0.374 the trend to warming up identified through thermic anomalies analysis and Global Warming Index is confirmed Since the Sens`s slope is slightly higher in the Salado river compared to the Grande river the Salado river basin is experiencing a slightly faster warm-up Box-and-whisker plot for NDVI values for the Grande River sub-basin (G) Different letters denote significant differences (p < 0.05) NDVI values for the Salado River sub-basin and its corridor in the dry season showed significant differences (p < 0.05) with Grande River and its corridor in wet and dry seasons and with Salado River sub-basin and its corridor in the wet season; being twice smaller than both the Grande River sub-basin and its corridor in the wet season NDVI values for the Grande River sub-basin and its corridor during the dry season are similar to values for the Salado River and its corridor during the wet season The map of NDVI values and infrared spectral band combinations (5-4-3) for scenes of the Grande and the Salado Rivers are shown in Figure 6 The Grande River has a more uniform vegetation cover on the river corridor in the wet and dry seasons the Salado River has a fragmented river corridor during the dry season The Salado River shows no vegetation cover in areas far from the river channel in the dry season and a more uniform vegetation cover during the rainy season differences between endogenous and exogenous river sub-basins are evident at the landscape level NDVI Map for (A) the Grande River in the dry season and (F) the Salado River in the wet season Spectral combination for infrared Landsat 8 OLI TIRS bands (5-4-3) for (C) the Grande River in the dry season and (H) the Salado River in the wet season Mean NDWI values fluctuated from 0.31 (dry season) to 0.47 (wet season) in the Grande River sub-basin, from 0.29 (dry season) to 0.47 (wet season) in the Grande River corridor, from 0.09 (dry season) to 0.29 (wet season) in the Salado River sub-basin, and from 0.22 (dry season) to 0.29 (wet season) in the Salado River corridor (Figure 7) Box-and-whisker plot for NDWI values for the Grande River sub-basin (G) and the Salado River corridor (SRC) during the wet and dry seasons significant differences (p < 0.05) were found in NDWI values for the Grande River sub-basin and its corridor in the wet season versus the Salado River sub-basin and its corridor in the dry season No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found among NDWI values for the Grande River and the Grande River corridor during the dry season versus the Salado River sub-basin in the wet season and the Salado River corridor in both wet and dry season the Salado River corridor during the wet and dry seasons is similar to the Grande River corridor in the dry season The Salado River during the dry season shows the lowest NDWI values being different from all other values (p < 0.05) Mean NDDI values ranged from 0.19 (dry season) to 0.08 (wet season) in the Grande River sub-basin, from 0.19 (dry season) to 0.07 (wet season) in the Grande River corridor, from 0.50 (dry season) to 0.20 (wet season) in the Salado River sub-basin, and from 0.13 (dry season) to 0.04 (wet season) in the Salado River corridor (Figure 8) significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the Salado River sub-basin in the dry season being different from all others and showing the highest drought index values and between the Salado River corridor in wet season with Grande River and Grande River corridor in dry season Box-and-whisker plot for NDDI values for the Grande River sub-basin (G) and the Salado River corridor (SRC) in the wet and dry seasons and NDDI for the Grande River and the Salado River sub-basins and river corridors Rivers are often central elements of the landscape as they are far more than merely flowing water. Vegetation is present along virtually all river corridors, interacting with the flow, influencing bank stability, and contributing to floodplain roughness (Powell, 2009; Tomsett and Leyland, 2019). Furthermore, river corridors in dryland rivers play a critical role in supplying environmental services (FAO, 2016) Huang et al. (2017) point out that the most significant warming over the past 100 years was observed over drylands and accounted for more than half of the continental warming. Likewise, Karmalkar et al. (2011) point out that mountain ecosystems and species where climate zonation is constrained by topography are particularly susceptible to changing climate noting that although ecosystems have adapted to changing conditions in the past current environmental changes are occurring at a much faster rate These authors make particular reference to the region that ranges from Central Mexico to the Panama Canal where hotspot of Mesoamerican biodiversity has been declared and conclude that Regional Climate Models that they applied predict that the warming that will occur in Mexico and Central America is greater than the global temperature increase endogenous rivers are more susceptible to climate change and the ensuing desertification which shed their foliage during the dry season Both strategies set an essential difference between sub-basins and river corridors of endogenous versus exogenous rivers to face drought conditions Tellez-Valdez and Davila-Aranda (2003) examined the effects of climate change in TCBR on distribution patterns of 20 species of Cactaceae plants and finding that the most extreme scenario predicts from a drastic distribution contraction of the population studied species either outside or within the limits of the TCBR The latter highlights the importance of climate change studies in this region our study establishes a clear difference between the two main sub-basins of the TCBR where the Salado river sub-basin is most vulnerable to desertification This study evidences significant differences between the river corridors of endogenous and exogenous rivers at the seasonal scale. River corridors of endogenic rivers are subject to more drastic processes and conditions versus exogenous river corridors. Krosby et al. (2018) indicate that riparian habitats are potential conservation areas under climate change scenarios because they provide microclimatic refuges against warming we found that drought conditions were more severe in the Salado River sub-basin and its corridor thus reducing the function of this river corridor While the Grande River corridor is essentially outlined as a landscape continuum the Salado River corridor appears in dynamic patches River corridors in dryland rivers should be seen as green linear configurations of variable width that supplement rivers along their path river corridors in TCBR should be considered biodiversity hotspots because they offer climatic and environmental conditions suitable for species that may not survive the dry conditions further away from the riverbed; these species of animals and plants supply environmental services in a trade-off with the stream Although there are efforts to model the potential effects of climate change in arid and semi-arid zones (Vivoni et al. the scope of this study does not consider the application of these models subsequent studies in the RBTC should focus on generating databases that help feed the models that will allow identifying the effects of climate change on the course of the rivers of the RBTC The severe manifestation of drought in the Salado River sub-basin and its corridor showing the lowest NDVI values may be signs of desertification and climate change the lowest NDVI and NDWI and the highest NDDI values in the Salado River corridor reveal a channel devoid of vegetation cover highlighting the vulnerability of these riparian ecosystems and the risks to which they are subject the Salado and Grande River corridors showed some level of resilience to face climatic conditions Efforts to conserve the river corridors should be made in the TCBR including the Salado and the Grande sub-basins Further studies should be conducted to address the effects of drought in the TCBR to support and guide management strategies and social policies EL-L provided feedback on the analyses and the article Both authors reviewed and contributed to the final version of the article This research was funding by Instituto Politécnico Nacional through the research projects SIP-20200578 The authors thank the Instituto Politécnico Nacional for the support and María Elena Sánchez-Salazar for the language editing Normalized Difference Vegetation Index; NDWI Tehuacán—Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Adaptation of Desert Plants,” in Plants in the Deserts of the Middle East CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Riparian Vegetation and the Fluvial Environment: A Biogeographic Perspective,” in Treatise on Geomorphology CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Hydrological and Geomorphological Significance of Riparian Vegetation in Drylands,” in Dryland Ecohydrology (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing) CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Resilience of Floodplain Ecosystems in a Semi-Arid Environment CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Programa de Manejo reserva de la Biósfera Tehuacán Cuicatlán Mexico City: Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales Application of Remote Sensing to Water Environmental Processes under a Changing Climate CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Biological Diversity in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Consejería de Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del territorio Andalucia: Sistema de Indicadores Ambientales de la Red de Información Ambiental de Andalucia Espinal Carreón Evaluación de la Calidad del Agua en la Laguna de Yuriria mediante técnicas multivariadas: un Análisis de Valoración para dos épocas 2005 Google Scholar Italy: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations “Assessing Drivers of Vegetation Changes in Drylands from Time Series of Earth Observation Data,” in Remote Sensing Time Series Revealing Land Surface Dynamics CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Spectral Separability of Riparian Forests from Small and Medium-Sized Rivers Across a Latitudinal Gradient Using Multispectral Imagery CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar NDWI-A Normalized Difference Water Index for Remote Sensing of Vegetation Liquid Water from Space CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Modificaciones al Sistema de Clasificación Climática de Köppen (para adaptarlo a las condiciones de la República Mexicana México: Instituto de Geografía Glovis, US Geological Service (2020). 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use *Correspondence: Jacinto Elías Sedeño-Díaz, anNlZGVub0BpcG4ubXg= The Heart of Agriculture Invention in America Rod Waddington / CC / Flickr