A preliminary assessment of water quality in silvopastoral systems of Panama’s dry tropical forest

Abstract

Dry tropical forests are unique, biodiverse ecosystems threatened by human development, especially deforestation for agricultural land use. Deforestation reduces carbon sequestration in landscapes and, in turn, pollutes nearby waterways. Agroforestry practices, like silvopastoralism, can mitigate these impacts by integrating trees into working landscapes, but their effect on stream water quality has not been studied. We assessed the stream condition on five silvopastoral farms in Panama’s Azuero Peninsula by utilizing aquatic macroinvertebrates as indicators. We collected aquatic macroinvertebrates and calculated the percent EPT, Diptera, and Odonata. Using ArcGIS, we measured distance to live fence, riparian connectivity, and forest patch size. We also measured tree carbon stored in the riparian area and throughout each farm. We analyzed the relationships between landscape or habitat variables and water quality scores using single linear regressions in R Studio. Percent EPT, Odonata, and diversity were positively predicted by riparian tree carbon, while percent Diptera was negatively predicted by riparian tree carbon. Our results highlight the importance of expanding agroforestry in this region and suggest that increasing tree cover in agricultural landscapes may be beneficial to stream condition, but additional research is needed.