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The role of peat-forming bofedales in sustaining baseflow in the humid puna


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Created: Apr 24, 2023 at 7:27 p.m.
Last updated: Jul 02, 2023 at 2:24 a.m.
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Abstract

Study region:
Humid puna of the Central Andes, Perú

Study focus:
Bofedales, or peat-forming wetlands, are a characteristic feature of the humid puna
- a high elevation, seasonally dry grass- and shrub-land throughout the Central Andes. Despite
the hydrologic importance of the humid puna for downstream communities, and the inference
that bofedales play an important role, few studies have explored the hydrology of this ecosystem,
and none have quantified bofedal water yield to streams. We designed a 3-year study in
the Upper Ramuschaka Watershed (URW), a 2.12 km2 humid puna catchment sustaining a
perennial stream used for irrigation downstream. We monitored hydrologic fluxes through the
URW, periodically measured discharge in 19 nested subbasins across wet and dry seasons, and
characterized the structure, hydraulic properties, and storage capacity of four bofedales.

New hydrological insights for the region:
Unit runoff is consistently higher in subbasins with
greater bofedal coverage. High porosity peat fills in the wet season via groundwater recharge
and drains slowly through underlying layers with low hydraulic conductivity. Bofedales cover
11.6% of the URW and store 105,000 10,000 m3 of water seasonally. In the dry season,
bofedales yield 49 5 mm to streams, equivalent to 20 – 98% of the URW’s dry season runoff.
Bofedales regulate drainage from the humid puna to downstream communities and are therefore
vital to local and regional water security.

Subject Keywords

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
Place/Area Name:
Upper Ramuschaka Watershed, Zurite, Perú
North Latitude
-13.4386°
East Longitude
-72.2494°
South Latitude
-13.4593°
West Longitude
-72.2762°

Temporal

Start Date:
End Date:

Content

Credits

Funding Agencies

This resource was created using funding from the following sources:
Agency Name Award Title Award Number
Geoscientists Without Borders Bonanza en los Andes 2017080009
National Science Foundation, IRES program Empowering students to bridge the gap between hydrologic science and community resilience: A case study in post-glacial Perú OISE-2107395, OISE-2106297

How to Cite

Oshun, J. (2023). The role of peat-forming bofedales in sustaining baseflow in the humid puna, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/ce264199c9d1499aaa236eeaaa97b13f

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

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