Methodological proposal for monitoring of vehicular traces on protected plant communities of desert

Abstract

Background and Aims: The transit of vehicles within protected areas constitutes a threat to the natural heritage that must be evaluated. The high operational cost of monitoring these activities makes it necessary to develop quick and simple evaluation alternatives that allow having a first parameter of trends. Using freeware and basic techniques, I propose a study case to evaluate the increase in vehicle traces during two periods and their potential impact on the vegetation of the Loma de Las Tapias protected area, San Juan, Argentina.

M&M: Using pre-existing floristic zoning and two sets of satellite images (2004-2018), vehicle traces were quantified with a grid, and these squares were categorized according to: absence of traces; old traces (2004); new traces (2018) and relapsing traces (2004-2018) on the different floristic units. Results: Currently, from the 223 squares that constitute the grid, only 35 % showed no vehicular traces, while 13.9 % had only old ones, 30 % relapsing traces and the remaining 21.1 % had new vehicular traces. The increase during the evaluated period was uniform in all floristic units. Conclusions: The proposed methodology was simple and fast and allowed detecting the increase of vehicular traces in the area, establishing reference values for subsequent evaluations. The observed increase of traces emphasizes the need to focus on conservation efforts and to incorporate new thematic layers to enrich the management of the protected area.