Los agroecosistemas como refugios de la biodiversidad:

El caso de los anfibios y reptiles

Abstract

Traditionally, the greatest diversity of species has been considered to be found in conserved sites. However, modified environments such as agroecosystems can contain a significant part of the original diversity. In this work, we compare the herpetofauna of four agroecosystems in two localities in the state of Guanajuato. Janicho and Urireo, with a temporary production system, and El Copal and San Nicolás de los Agustinos, with an irrigation system. Likewise, we compared the herpetofauna of these sites (not conserved) with that of semi-preserved and conserved sites in the state of Guanajuato. We found that the agroecosystems in the town of El Copal, presented the largest number of species, which suggests that being an irrigation production system, provides amphibians and reptiles found in it, shelter and constant food, unlike of the towns of Urireo and Janicho, with temporary production systems, and that depend on the rains to retain a greater number of species. In the case of San Nicolas de los Agustinos, we consider that the proximity to the lowland forest, allowed a flow of species in both directions, therefore, its fewer species. When comparing the study sites (not conserved) with the semipreserved and conserved ones, we found that together they harbor a herpetofauna comparable to the latter. We suggest that agroecosystems can function as temporary refuge and feeding areas for amphibian and reptile species that are tolerant to disturbance, or that move from disturbed to semi-conserved areas. Therefore, we suggest that, in future studies, the ecological structure of these sites be analyzed in depth and determine from it, to what extent agroecosystems can maintain native diversity of amphibian and reptiles.