Niche breadth and redundancy: useful indices to analyse fuelwood use in rural communities

M. BETINA CARDOSO; LOZADA MARIANA; LADIO HAYDÉE ANA

JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2017 vol. 145 p. 52 - 59

0140-1963

In this work the concepts of niche breadth and redundancy wereused to analyse the use of fuelwood species in rural populations inPatagonia, Argentina. We conducted semi-structured interviews in order toestimate Fuel Niche Breadth (FNB). For this, the variables used were: UseConsensus of native species, Use Consensus of preferred species and UseConsensus of pruning species. Moreover, two indices were created tocompare Socio-Environmental Fuel Redundancy (SEFRI) and Economic Dependence (EDI) between populations. The most isolated populationpresented the highest values for FNB, considering principally the UseConsensus of native species and high environmental redundancy, while thecommunity with most access to urban centres showed the highest FNB valuefor Use consensus of pruning species. The third community presentedintermediate values for FNB and low levels of redundancy, showing notablevulnerability. The Fuel Niche Breadth measured through fuelwood usecontributes to the description of socio-ecological. Evaluation ofredundancy in terms of a resource and its different functional varieties,not focusing in particular on the functionality of the species, allowsevaluating the current situation of the resource under study. The indicescreated in this work can also be used for other variables related tosubsistence lifestyles.