Evaluation of Two Ecosystem Services Provided by a <i>Pistia stratiotes</i> Population on the Pacific Coast of South America

Abstract

One of the most fascinating wetlands on Peru’s central coast is the Santa Rosa wetland (Chancay, Lima), an ecosystem threatened by anthropogenic activities. Some of these impacts have led to the uncontrolled growth of Pistia stratiotes, an invasive aquatic plant. This study sought to quantify the regulation and provisioning of ecosystem services provided by P. stratiotes using carbon storage and the provision of biomass as indicators. To this end, the biomasses of 50 plots measuring 0.0625 m2 were weighed and georeferenced and the percentages of dry biomass (%DB) and total organic carbon in the biomass (%C) were quantified. The biomass and its coordinates were entered into ArcGIS and a Kriging interpolation technique was applied to determine the total amount of biomass (B). It was found that P. stratiotes stored 3942.57 tCO2 and that 2132.41 tons of biomass could be obtained for fodder. The total carbon stored by this aquatic plant represented 28.46% of the total carbon sequestered in the wetland ecosystem by vascular plants, suggesting that its contribution to the carbon cycle is significant. This is the first study to estimate the biomass of a floating aquatic plant population in a coastal Peruvian wetland and is a pioneering study addressing the in situ carbon estimation of Peruvian floating aquatic plants. The results and methods proposed in this research will serve in the evaluation of the potential of ecosystem services among similar populations of floating aquatic species. In addition, the data presented can be used to establish plans for the management and use of this biomass in the production of soil fertilizers and cattle forage.

Keywords

• carbon storage
• coastal wetlands
• water lettuce
• aquatic plants
• forage provision