Determinación de las principales fuentes de agua que generan escorrentía en zonas de páramo y su contribución, usando trazadores ambientales

Abstract

Despite the importance of the paramo ecosystem due to the environmental services it provides to the planet, the research on the topic is scarce; an issue that has led to the development of new studies to understand its hydrological function. This study conducted in the Zhurucay River Basin located in the southern Ecuadorian Andes between 3200 and 3900 m a.s.l., focused on identifying the main geographic sources that contribute to runoff using the end-member technique in paramoareas and determining their percentage of contribution through a mixture model. Water samples recollection was conducted in the monitoring network located in the upper basin of the Zhurucay River during the period April 2012 - June 2013. The mixture model was applied to identify as the main end-members Manantial (M), Andosol 1 (A1) and Histosol 1 (H1), considering Histosol (H1) as the largest contributor to runoff generation in the basin, with a percentage of contribution between 20 and 80%, followed by Andosol 1 with percentages between 20 and 55%, and finally Manantial point presenting a contribution between 5 and 20%, indicating that this source contributes the least to the basin runoff.