Understanding rangeland management and the recovery ofecosystem services in tropical agro-forest landscapes

Summary

Tropical agro-forest frontier areas are highly dynamic landscapes consisting of mosaics of different land uses. They provide essential ecosystem services and are the arena for major challenges addressing the balance between human well-being and biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity loss, as a consequence of land use change and inadequate management practices, alters ecosystem functioning, reduces ecosystem services provision and diminishes the capacity of degraded lands to recover. Hence, it is crucial to understand agricultural management to develop adequate practices.
In this thesis, I investigated the effects of rangeland management on ecosystem services provided by grasslands for cattle production and evaluated ecological restoration techniques for the recovery of abandoned lands. The research was conducted in Lacandona rainforest, a tropical agro-forest landscape located in southeast Mexico.