TITLE:
Land-Sea Interactions in Punta China (Baja California, México): Addressing Anthropic and Natural Disturbances in a Retrospective Context
AUTHORS:
Guillermo Torres-Moye, Anamaría Escofet
KEYWORDS:
Mexican Pacific Embayments, Mining Industry, El Niño Events, Kelp Beds, Safari Method
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.5 No.16,
November
26,
2014
ABSTRACT: In
extensive SCUBA-diving surveys of kelp forests along 350 km of the Baja
California peninsula coastline from the US-México borderline to Sacramento
Reef, benthic species richness has been satisfactorily explained by
environmental structural features such as bottom rugosity. However, values at
Punta China embayment (PCE) departed significantly from the model whereas the
adjacent Santo Tomás cove (STC) did not. In addition, in August 20, 2011,
visibility was under 1 m at PCE and over 10 m at STC; these conditions
presumably reflect the influence of the limestone extraction industry located
on land. In order to investigate the case allowing for temporal comparisons, we
set a regional research scenario similar to a 1993 pioneer study, comprising
PCE and two contrasting sites (STC to the North, and San José embayment, SJE,
to the South). Land and sea side were addressed separately, and a 1950-2012
time-span period was set in order to perform the analysis of retrospective
data. Our results suggest that the current scenario results from the combined
influence of a local, anthropic and chronic land-based disturbance represented
by the progressive expansion of limestone extraction industry, and the episodic
influence of a natural, large scale and acute disturbance represented by the
1982-83 and 1997-98 El Nino events. The influence of both driving forces,
however, is not necessarily equally distributed in space, yielding a regional
mosaic of natural and social conditions. Our results confirm and expand
previous knowledge in the area, and may contribute tofuture basic
and applied research.