Influence of Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis (Sénécl.)) plantations on the behavior of the climatic element precipitation (Period 1971-1999)

Influencia de las plantaciones de pino Caribe (Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis (Sénécl.)) en el comportamiento del elemento climático precipitación (Período 1971-1999)

Abstract

The present research describes how, through the introduction of pine plantations in savanna ecosystems, it can induce changes in the behavior of precipitation, thus demonstrating the influence of vegetation as a climatic factor, since they can generate a mesoclimate. The objective The main objective was to know the influence of the Caribbean pine plantations, located south of the Monagas and Anzoátegui states, on the behavior of rainfall, during the period between 1971-1999. To do this, the meteorological stations present in the study area were inventoried to be purged of missing data. To verify the randomness of the data, the streak method was applied, which allowed us to discard those that presented heterogeneity defects. Subsequently, the method of accumulated means and variances was used in order to graphically verify at what moment both statistics began to stabilize to visualize the moment at which the influence of vegetation on precipitation is evident. Consecutively, a graphical representation of precipitation was carried out to observe its behavior throughout the study period. To determine some influence of the plantations on the behavior of rainfall, the simple linear regression model was applied to the time series of annual rainfall in each of the 27 selected rainfall stations, calculating the associated statistics such as the regression coefficient β1 and the coefficient of determination R2 as well as its statistical significance tests. In this sense, it was determined that the rate of increase in precipitation in the study area is 11.42 mm/year, demonstrating the influence of the Caribbean pine plantations, located south of the Monagas and Anzoátegui states, in the behavior of rainfall, during the period between 1971-1999.