THE LAPWING IN ANDEAN ETHNOECOLOGY: PROXY FOR LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMATION*

The mosaic of vegetation types in Ecuador reflects ecological gradients along altitudinal clines associated with the presence of bird species in a variety of equatorial locales (Chapman 1926). Traditionally, meteorological conditions favoring a cluster of intensity/seasonality resource-use schemes for bird species were thought to create important biogeographical patterns in the four main natural regions of the country: the Amazon basin in the east; the north-south-trending Andes Mountains in the center (Figure 1); the coastal lowlands in the west; and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The active backbone of the Andes, with its topographic and climatic extremes, receives fertility inputs of volcanic origin. The lowlands at each of the outer slopes receive intense and constant inputs of alluvial origin. In some cases feedback occurs in the Andean piedmont, associated with new soil from laminar erosion, loess deposition, and other geological dynamics, including tremors and earthquakes. The feedback is considered a restorative mechanism for maintaining productive, agrobiodiverse systems in the tropandean landscape. Thus soil conditions vary not only because of differential age, weathering, and parent material but also because of anthropogenic disturbance, creating catenae of enhanced diversity due to selective management since antiquity (Young 2007). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] LANDSCAPE HETEROGENEITY AND BIRD COMMUNITIES Microclimates and anthropogenic agency explain the great variety of habitats that birds occupy in Ecuador (Sarmiento 1987). The abundant bird life in the equatorial Andes reflects the rich assemblage of flora and fauna in that fertile mountain setting. Isolation, parapatry--use of adjacent habitat types depending on the slope and aspect of mountains--and other vicarious effects allow east-west differentiation. North-south distributional patterns, such as the islandlike high Andean paramos, (1) also affect equatorial biodiversity. So does the disjunctive distribution of certain plant species, such as the stem rosette "big friar," or frailejon (Espeletia hartwegiana), a conspicuous element of El Angel paramo in far northern Ecuador that disappears southward, only to reappear in the Llanganatis Mountains of central Ecuador (Balslev 1988), or the remnants of quina roja (a papery, flaky bark rose tree) (Polylepis spp.) forests that are isolated amid a sea of grasses (Fjeldsa 1992). Other curious biogeographical patterns are obvious at the Nudo del Azuay (see Figure 1), where the age and structure of soil prompts different species to occupy woodlands not only on the upper montane belt but also in transandean coves that buffer wind and temperature, on the bottom of interandean valleys, and on the entire Andean piedmont. Wind dynamics also produce biodiversity loci on mountain passes, which reflect dispersal patterns for lowland-highland avian and plant dynamics (Grubb and Whitmore 1966). The highly varied physical geography, climate, and elevation are often considered parameters against which to calibrate distributional models of bird species (Butler 1979). Because hitherto the role of humans as drivers of landscape change has seldom been reported for tropical mountains, the research described in this article facilitates recognition of the need to consider anthropogenic impacts as causal factors in biogeographical distributional patterns in Andean paramos and other anthropogenic biomes (Ellis and Ramankutty 2007). My research on avian habitats, including my previously published ecological descriptions of Ecuador (Sarmiento 1987, 2001, 2002a), helps readers become familiar with vegetation types and bird communities in Ecuadorian landscapes, informed by the rich cultural geography, ancestral land-use practices, and ancient human agency. Furthermore, it uses habitat associations to explain unique features for bird endemicity--or its rare presence in restricted, insular territories--as well as the spatial relationships of birds in the wider cultural landscape and their role as a proxy for the effects of global environmental change. …