Abstract

HERNANDEZ MELCHOR, Gloria Isela; RUIZ ROSADO, Octavio; SOL SANCHEZ, Ángel  and  VALDEZ HERNANDEZ, Juan Ignacio. Changes in land use in coastal mangroves of Tabasco. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2016, vol.7, n.spe14, pp.2757-2767. ISSN 2007-0934.

The objective was to evaluate the change of land use in the period 1995 to 2008, identifying and quantifying the changes in location and mangroves areas in four suburbs from the municipality of Cárdenas, Tabasco; by interpreting digital orthophotos scale 1:20 000 (1995) and 1:10 000 (2008). The results indicate that in 1995 the mangrove area was 568.49 ha; for 2008 such surface showed an increase of 148.72 ha replacing part of the hydrophytic vegetation and grass-livestock agroecosystem. Though, the generated maps show that in some places mangrove increased and in others its area was reduced, identifying a loss of 32 ha that were replaced mainly by coconut-pasture-livestock agro-ecosystem. This change in land use is a result to the socio-economic conditions of their respective owners. The results can be encouraging, from the ecological point of view, since the new mangrove strips provide a barrier to prevent soil salinization to enter to areas used for livestock.

Keywords : agro-ecosystem; deforestation; land use change; mangrove.