Carbon stored in the desert ecosystem: the case of Lomas de Lúcumo in Lima.

Abstract

In Peru, the value of ecosystem services is poorly understood; therefore, many hills on the coast are being destroyed and degraded, which could provide us with help by capturing carbon dioxide. In Lima there are various Lomas such as: hills of Amancáes, Puquio, Pachacamac, Lurín and Atocongo. The objective of this research was to quantify the total carbon existing in the ecosystem of the Lúcumo hills in Pachacamac and for this, destructive and non-destructive methods were used, the field evaluation was carried out in the month of September, the data were taken field, the samples were processed in the laboratory and then the information was processed using formulas approved by the IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. As a result, it was determined that the total carbon stored in the ecosystem is 41.1 tC/ha, the amount of carbon in tree biomass was 20.48 t/ha, shrub biomass (1.41 t/ha), and leaf litter biomass (3.84 t/ha), biomass in roots (0.34 t/ha) and carbon in the soil (15.02 t/ha). Therefore, it is concluded that the Lomas de Lúcumo do function as a carbon sink and are very important for our city, recommending that the care and conservation of the Lomas should be promoted, through restoration actions of the species that were before.