## 3 Results
### Spatial Coverage and Distribution of Land Cover Categories
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**All Islands**} \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Land Cover**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Agricultural Area**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Buffer Zone**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Total**} \\ \cline{2-7}  & **Ha** & **\%** & **Ha** & **\%** & **Ha** & **\%** \\ \hline Bare Ground & 18.63 & 0.07 & 513.04 & 1.45 & 531.67 & 0.88 \\ Built Environment & 259.04 & 1.03 & 35.81 & 0.10 & 294.85 & 0.49 \\ _Cedrela_-Cedar & 1349.62 & 5.34 & 2574.54 & 7.29 & 3924.16 & 6.48 \\ _Cinchua_-Quinine & 17.42 & 0.07 & 48.25 & 0.14 & 65.67 & 0.11 \\ _Coffea_-Coffee & 944.86 & 3.74 & 41.95 & 0.12 & 986.81 & 1.63 \\ Cultivated Grass & 2402.48 & 9.51 & 119.05 & 0.34 & 2521.53 & 4.16 \\ Deciduous Forest & 268.96 & 1.06 & 8542.59 & 24.20 & 8811.55 & 14.55 \\ Evergreen Forest and & 2428.89 & 9.62 & 2737.84 & 7.76 & 5166.73 & 8.53 \\ Shrubland & 1642.12 & 6.50 & 13.3/9.97 & 37.91 & 15/022.09 & 24.81 \\ Evergreen Seasonal Forest & 29.39 & 0.12 & 7.64 & 0.02 & 37.03 & 0.06 \\ Freshwater & 369.84 & 1.46 & 987.56 & 2.80 & 1357.40 & 2.24 \\ Humid Tallgrass & 1877.17 & 7.43 & 2830.53 & 8.02 & 4707.70 & 7.77 \\ Mixed Forest & 103.85 & 0.41 & 531.54 & 1.51 & 635.39 & 1.05 \\ Permanent Crops & 2969.38 & 11.75 & 232.10 & 0.66 & 3201.48 & 5.29 \\ Pioneer & 1048.90 & 4.15 & 70.01 & 0.20 & 1118.91 & 1.85 \\ _Psidium_-Guava & **4958.86** & **19.63** & 2420.95 & 6.86 & 7379.81 & 12.19 \\ _Rubus_-BlackBerry & 325.39 & 1.29 & 81.42 & 0.23 & 406.81 & 0.67 \\ Silvopasture & 3113.75 & 12.33 & 82.87 & 0.23 & 3196.62 & 5.28 \\ _Syzygium_-Pomarosa & 434.04 & 1.72 & 29.08 & 0.08 & 463.12 & 0.76 \\ Transitory Crops & 698.43 & 2.76 & 28.34 & 0.08 & 726.77 & 1.20 \\ \hline Total & 25,261.00 & 100.00 & 35,295.10 & 100.00 & 60,556.10 & 100.00 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
*Shaded cells highlight the dominant land cover type within the agricultural area, within the surrounding buffer zone, and in both areas combined.  
\end{table} 
Table 10: Extents and percentage of terrestrial surface covered in the study area by each land cover category. *74% of its 2200 ha of this ecosystem is found around and to the East of El Junco (the island's largest freshwater body), but well within the agricultural area (Figure 6, Table A2). We have also grouped categories corresponding to broader types, such as invasive vegetation, native vegetation, pastures, and food crops (Table 11). Each of the more general categories from Table 11 has been represented as thematic maps (Appendix B). It should be noted that the estimate for invasive species is very conservative because, unlike previous studies [42], it excludes the mixed forest category from its calculation. Cumulatively, native vegetation categories (deciduous forest, evergreen forest and shrubland, evergreen seasonal forest and shrubland, and humid tallgrass, cover 50% of the study area, mostly distributed outside of the agricultural zones (Figure 6, Figure A1). Around 4709 ha of native vegetation are found within the agricultural zone, compared to 25,647 ha covering the surrounding areas. The exception to this pattern is San Cristobal, where 30% (2535 ha) of its agricultural area was categorized as native vegetation (Table 11, Figure A1). Figure 6: Land cover classification of the agricultural areas and surrounding humid highlands of the Galapagos. San Cristobal's agricultural area is also covered to a comparable extent (2766 ha) by invasive species (Table 11, Figure A2). Identifiable patches of invasive species (_Cedrela_, _Cinchona_, _Pennisetum_, _Psidium_, _Rubus_, and _Syzgium_) constitute about 21% of the study area's surface area, most of it (7189 ha) distributed within the agricultural areas of all islands, compared to 5685 ha identified in the surrounding areas. Isabela is the island with the highest percentage of its agricultural area covered by invasive plants (36%, 1872 ha) and is also the island with the highest percentage of its surrounding areas (29%, 2149 ha) covered by invasive plants.