Home Garden Agrobiodiversity Differentiates Along a Rural—Peri–Urban Gradient in Campeche, México

Autor: Ligia Guadalupe Esparza Olguín, Juan Manuel Pat Fernández, Wilbert Santiago Poot Pool, Hans van der Wal, Salvador Flores–Guido
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Economic Botany. 69:203-217
ISSN: 1874-9364
0013-0001
Popis: Home Garden Agrobiodiversity Differentiates Along a Rural—Peri–Urban Gradient in Campeche, Mexico. Agrobiodiversity in tropical home gardens is thought to decline with increasing urbanization, but information in this regard is scarce. We characterized livelihoods and compared attributes of home gardens of rural, semi–rural, and peri–urban families in Campeche, Mexico. We hypothesized a decline of agrobiodiversity of cultivated trees and shrubs, its native component, and the diversity of uses from rural to peri–urban livelihoods, and increases for cultivated herbs. We registered all cultivated species in 12 randomly selected home gardens in each condition, and determined species’ origin and use. Total and average observed species richness of trees and shrubs in rural and semi–rural home gardens was similar and higher than in peri–urban home gardens, but equally sized samples all had similar richness. Tree density and basal area were largest in semi–rural home gardens. Total observed and average species richness of herbs increased along the rural—peri–urban gradient, and richness of equally sized samples of herbs was higher in peri–urban than in rural and semi–rural home gardens. Peri–urban home gardens had the highest richness of equally sized samples of all plants. Differences in richness were associated with a shift in livelihoods, influencing plant uses, and hence species composition along the gradient: peri–urban families combined some fruit trees with a large diversity of ornamental herbs. Rural and semi–rural families maintained tree and shrub species of distinct uses, cultivated less ornamental species and a larger native component than peri–urban home gardens. We conclude that agrobiodiversity does not decline along the rural—peri–urban gradient, but differentiates.
Databáze: OpenAIRE