Interceptación y escorrentía del bosque altoandino en la reserva forestal protectora “El Malmo”

Tropical forests are important globally for their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide are key to the global water cycle. The changes and pressures of anthropic origin that affect tropical forests affect the fundamental role of these in the provision of water. In this work the relationship between the vegetation cover in the High Andean Forest of the Protective Forest Reserve “El Malmo” with the quality and quantity of interception and runoff is evaluated; the life zone analyzed includes four types of cover: dense high Andean forest, low secondary vegetation, broadleaf planting and mosaic of pastures with natural spaces. Eight assemblies were installed (two per cover) each composed of a runoff plot and a pluviometer under the canopy; the data was collected every eigh days for 24 weeks. The results indicate that the interception of precipitation does not differ in each cover, whereas if surface runoff and its quality with respect to sediments are affected, changes that are strongly related to differences in soil physical conditions. The coverage that allows the best dimensions of quality and quantity of water is the high Andean dense forest. The influence of anthropic intervention on the area and the presence of invasive species adversely affect these variables. This work provides knowledge about the hydrological behavior of the Reserve, for its use in forest management. Also, it generates information, until the moment nonexistent, on the interception / runoff relationship in forests of the Cundiboyacense region, becoming an initial point of comparison for new research in High Andean ecosystems.