Susceptibility to gravitational processes due to land cover change in the Río Chiquito-Barranca del Muerto subbasin(Pico De Orizaba Volcano, México)

instability associated Land cover change can lead to slope by accelerating erosive processes with agriculture, forestry, and infrastructure. The Rio Chiquito-Barranca del Muerto subbasin has experienced an increase in land cover change due to government programs and the establishment of agricultural and urban areas. The aim of this study was to provide a model to map the susceptibility to gravitational processes along sites where anthropogenic land cover change has occurred. The method was based on the stratification of the subbasin according to landforms and cartographic variables. These variables were used in a multi- criteria assessment to assign weights according to their contribution to the onset of new gravitationalprocesses. Those weights were used to create a susceptibility map based on a weighted linear sum. The accuracy of the resulting map was validated in an error matrix with a random stratified design based on susceptibility classes per landform. The results produced a map of areas with susceptibility to gravitational processes due to land cover change; this susceptibility is very high in the undifferentiated pyroclastic slope and limestone mountain, where it derives not only from anthropogenie effects on natural vegetation cover, but also from steep slopes, weathered materials, low apparent density, high erosivity, and previous gravitational processes. The results support other studies that concluded that loss of vegetation is a triggering factor in the formation of gravitational processes, but also show that excessive reforestation can increase gravitational processes.

Environmental Factors that Affect Primary Plant Succession Trajectories on Lahars(Popocatépetl Volcano,Mexico)

The earliest stages of plant succession on severely disturbed sites usually follow highly unpredictable trajectories. However, in the Popocatépetl volcano area(50 km SE of Mexico City),the development of physiognomically distinct primary plant communities suggests the occurrence of various successional trajectories only 10 years after the onset of colonization of a temperate forest on lahars. To characterize plant communities and determine the environmental factors that drive the differences observed between plant communities and their successional trajectories, we monitored 64 circular sample plots(3.14 m2) from 2002 to 2011. We examined the plant communities' composition and structure in terms of their species richness and abundance, plant cover, and maximum stem height,and recorded 13 environmental factors related to the volcanic deposit characteristics, microclimate, soil,flow dynamics and gravitational processes. A cluster analysis of the species abundance data showed that,by 2011, six plant community types(CT's) had established, including grasslands, and open, dense and very dense shrub lands. As these communities developed over the same period of time and within the same overall ecosystem, then these plant community types were interpreted as different stages of the same successional trajectory. Two sequential main stages that drive regeneration were identified from this successional trajectory: a) the first four years are characterized by a steady increase in species richness and physiognomic development(plant size and coverage), mostly dominated by Baccharis conferta, Eupatorium glabratum and Senecio barbajohannis; b) from the sixth year onwards, a continued increase in the abundance of those same species led to the development of the dense shrubland communities.Differences in the availability of soil resources and disturbances linked to recent lahar flows were the main factors accounting for such differences.