Integrated analysis of ecosystem interactions with land-use change:: The southern Yucatan peninsular region

The southern Yucatan peninsular region is a seasonal tropical forest biome that experiences drought, hurricane, and agricultural disturbance. Substantial agricultural expansion over the past 50 years has opened and fragmented much of the forest surrounding the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, posing a series of threats to the coupled human-environment systems. These threats are traced in a conceptual model borrowed from vulnerability studies and detailed in regard to ecosystem responses, including forest structure and composition, above-ground biomass, soil nutrients, balance in species and biotic diversity, and invasive species. The land-use and land-cover changes underway pose trade-offs in ecosystem services and raise several scalar issues important to deforestation studies.