Garcia Jacome, L. G. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Temporal variability and its effects on diversity maintenance in an agroecological matrix

Agroecosystems are dynamic ecosystems, constituted by patches of vegetation and agricultural use, where biodiversity is shaped by spatial and temporal variability. While most studies have focused on spatial composition and configuration, the role of temporal variability remains poorly understood. Yet, temporal dynamics can strongly modify species composition, abundance, and persistence in ecological communities. Temporal variability is particularly relevant in agroecosystems with rainfed agriculture where environmental conditions shift dramatically between rainy and dry seasons. In this paper, we assess the role of temporal variability on biodiversity maintenance in an agricultural matrix using a metacommunity model that simulates an agricultural landscape under rainfed conditions, that is, with abrupt seasonal changes in the agricultural patches. This model couples a local community network dynamic with a migration dynamic and is based on empirically documented features of rainfed agricultural matrices. Our results show that temporal variability provides new opportunities for species to recover from low densities. However, the effect of temporal variability is not straightforward. It depends on the initial and final conditions, the migration and mortality rates and the intensity of temporal variability. Overall, our findings highlight the need to further investigate temporal variability to better understand its role in shaping biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Multiple resource use strategies confer resilience to the socio-ecosystem in a protected area in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Natural Protected Areas (NPAs) are the main biodiversity conservation strategy in Mexico. Generally, NPAs are established on the territories of indigenous and rural groups driving important changes in their local resource management practices. In this paper we study the case of Otoch Maax Yetel Kooh, an NPA in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, that has been studied in a multidisciplinary way for more than twenty years. This reserve and its buffer zone is homeland to Yucatec Mayan communities that until recently used to manage their resources following a multiple use strategy (MUS), which involves local agricultural practices and has been proposed as resilience-enhancing mechanism. However, due to the restrictions imposed by the decree of the reserve and the growth of tourism in the region, some of these communities have started to abandon the MUS and specialize on tourism-related activities. We build a dynamical computational model to explore the effects of some of these changes on the capacity of this NPA to conserve the biodiversity and on the resilience of households to some frequent disturbances in the region. The model, through the incorporation of agent-based and boolean network modelling, explores the interaction between the forest, the monkey population and some productive activities done by the households (milpa agriculture, ecotourism, agriculture, charcoal production). We calibrated the model, explored its sensibility, compared it with empirical data and simulated different management scenarios. Our results suggest that those management strategies that do not exclude traditional activities may be compatible with conservation objectives, supporting previous studies. Also, our results support the hypothesis that the MUS, throughout a balanced integration of traditional and alternative activities, is a mechanism to enhance household resilience in terms of income and food availability, as it reduces variability and increases the resistance to some disturbances. Our study, in addition to highlighting the importance of local management practices for resilience, also illustrates how computational modeling and systems perspective are effective means of integrating and synthesizing information from different sources.

ecology↗