Ecosystem services provided by urban green spaces in an arid city in western Argentina

VELAZQUEZ ROCIO; ANDINO NATALIA

Congreso; XLI Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2023

Understanding, conserving and making sustainable use of the benefits and resources provided by all ecosystems is a priority in order to live in a healthy and dignified environment. To this end, the vision of ecosystem services (ES), which refers to all the direct and indirect benefits that humans obtain from nature, is fundamental. In this sense, we understand the urban ecosystem as a key conservation link to ensure the contribution of these ES. During December 2021 and February 2022, 7 urban green spaces (EVU) -natural, semi-natural and artificial ecosystems within and around a city- were sampled in the city of San Juan, Argentina. The objective was to evaluate the different ecosystem services provided by these urban green spaces. Ecological. Microclimatic and social aspects were measured. Non-parametric statistics were used, since the data were not normally distributed. InfoStat software was used for data analysis. The results obtained suggest that the ES provided were: Regulatory Services (urban T°, noise reduction and air purification), Support Services (pollination and availability of habitats and resources for wildlife) and Cultural Services (recreation). Several proxy variables were used to estimate the ES contribution. The results obtained showed that the UGS contribute 1) regulation, 2) support and 3) cultural services: 1) as for regulation ES, the following were calculated: tree vegetation cover, substrate T° under and outside the canopy, for urban T° regulation; noise and vegetation cover, for anthropogenic noise regulation service; percentage of woody plants, morphological characteristics and foliar characteristics of the same, to estimate the air purification service. 2) There were two supporting ES. For the first one, pollination, the presence of flowering beds and the presence of registered flowering tree species were taken into account. The other support ES was the availability of habitats and resources for fauna, where the presence of the 3 plant strata and allometric data of the trees were estimated. 3) Finally, for the cultural ES, recreation was calculated. The proxy variables used for its estimation were: ramps for people with disabilities, lighting, drinking fountains, and sociocultural events. Each service was provided to a different extent in each study site, with urban temperature regulation being the ES with the greatest contribution.