Fragmentation of the mangrove forest in Marismas Nacionales, Mexico, from 1981 to 2015
Author(s):
María Alejandra QUINTERO-MORALES1, Sergio Alberto MONJARDIN-ARMENTA2, Yered Gybram CANCHOLA-PANTOJA3, Carlos Iván SALINAS-ESPINOSA4, Lidia Yadira PÉREZ-AGUILAR5, Francisco Zepeda MONDRAGÓN6
1 School of Biology, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mexico 2 School of Earth and Space Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mexico 3 School of Geography, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Mexico 4 Postgraduate in Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, Mexico 5 Faculty of Informatics, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Mexico 6 School of Geography, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Mexico
The objective of this research is to estimate the fragmentation of the mangrove forest landscape in Marismas Nacionales, Mexico, using landscape ecology metrics (number of patches per class, number of patches of each class in the landscape, average patch size, relative amount of edge in the landscape, weighted area of the average fractal dimension of the patch). At the same time, the factors that cause fragmentation promoted by deforestation and degradation were also determined, for which a specific survey was generated for the mangrove forest that can later be applied in any study area, through published literature and experts in the subject. The fragmentation of the mangrove forest was obtained in the course of the years 1981-2015 by increasing its patches and decreasing its edges, regarding the factors that caused deforestation was due to anthropogenic activities mainly by the expansion of infrastructure and aquaculture, while degradation was caused by natural causes such as hurricanes and tropical storms.
