What is Agua Salud?
Agua Salud is an experimental platform designed to study the ecosystem services provided by tropical forests and how they change with land use and environmental change.
Established in the year 2008 and named after the Agua Salud River, the experiment encompasses 700 hectares (a little over one thousand football pitches) in the Panama Canal watershed, to quantify the goods and social benefits derived from the landscape and undertake research designed to understand ecological processes.
This knowledge is necessary to produce the next generation of models predicting the delivery of these ecological, social and economic services in a changing world.
The Experiment
Vast areas of tropical forest have been cleared in the Americas for cattle production, including the forests of the Panama Canal watershed. But at what cost? Is this the best way to manage the land today?
Agua Salud researchers instrumented 13 different catchments or small watersheds and planted 150,000 trees in different experiments; native tree species were planted in monocultures and mixtures to understand the effect of diversity on growth, comparing them to plantations of teak (Tectona grandis) and to naturally regenerating forests.
This allows researchers to evaluate stream flow regulation and restoration of water quality, as well as which land uses are better at absorbing carbon dioxide and protecting biodiversity. Over time, it helps to determine which land uses resist and recover better from severe draughts and storms, essential information to build resilient landscapes and societies, and to help landowners, investors, stakeholders, communities and government planners to confront environmental change effects and plan for a more sustainable future.
Project Location
The Agua Salud Project is located in the heart of the Panama Canal Watershed. The Forest Restoration Project in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca is located in the District of Ñurum, in western Panama.
The Panama Canal Watershed
The Panama Canal is an important global maritime commercial transit route. Rainfall that does not return to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration makes its way to streams and rivers flowing into the Panama Canal. Freshwater not only drives the Canal, but is also the main source of drinking water for Panama City and other urban and rural areas in and around the watershed.
Owing to its economic significance, the combination of land uses representative of the Neotropics, and unmatched historical meteorological and hydrology data, the Panama Canal watershed is an ideal system within which to study environmental change effects on ecosystems and their services, where increasingly droughts and storms offer a window into a warmer world.
Different land uses
The Agua Salud landscape is a mosaic of land uses common across Panama and the Neotropics (or American tropics).
Pasture
Cattle ranching is an important economic activity in much of the Latin American tropics.
Old FOrest
Forests—now mostly restricted to parks and protected areas–that have not been cut for hundreds of years.
Secondary forest
Areas that have been cleared of forest for cattle ranching, timber harvest, development or other uses that are now growing back.
Mixed native timber species
Plantings of native tree species selected for their economic value and the benefits they provide.
Silvopastoral
Cattle pastures where trees are planted along streams, fence lines, to increase shade and protect soil and water resources
Teak Monoculture
Non-native trees, often used for reforestation because of their high timber value. The most commonly planted trees in Panama.
Canal grass
An exotic / imported grass growing to more than three meters in height that burns easily and can result in wild fires.
Experimental catchments
What you decide to do with land today can have very different outcomes in the long run. Take a look at how the Agua Salud experimental plots are distributed.
The forest is a sponge!
Forest soil absorbs more rainwater than pasture soil, soaking up rainfall during the wet seasons and releasing it slowly during the drier seasons. This is referred to as “the sponge effect”, and it helps to reducing the risk of water-related disasters, such as landslides and floods.
Planting trees around creeks helps improve water quality and reduces erosion; planting them on slopes and higher elevations helps the soil absorb the water, regulating the flow and speed of the water flowing toward lower areas, where people live.
During the rainy season, the water runs over the compacted soil of cattle pastures quickly, without being absorbed. Meanwhile, in forested lands, the soil absorbs and stores water that seeps through the holes in the ground made by wild animals and plant roots and releases it slowly during the dry season.
Our purpose and mission
Research across the Agua Salud landscape is well into its second decade. Cross-disciplinary research and long-term monitoring help researchers better understand ecosystem services, inform predictive models and contribute to reforestations efforts around the world.
Smart reforestation
Smart reforestation is using science to optimize reforestation efforts, by planting the right tree species in the right place, at the right time and for the right reasons.
Right species
Choose the best tree species for the objectives you want to achieve.
Right place
Match the right species to the optimal location and soil conditions for the trees to thrive.
Right time
Select the best moment to plant each tree species so they will grow optimally.
Right reason
Keep in mind the purpose for planting each tree, whether it is to preserve water resources, protect wildlife or to sell timber.
