Synthesis: The Past, Present and Future of Las Tablas de Daimiel

Abstract

Great strides have been made in our understanding of the ecology of a semiarid floodplain wetland, Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park (TDNP). Continuous interdisciplinary and collaborative research efforts during the last decades helped increase our understanding of basic and applied aspects of the wetland’s ecology and biogeochemistry. The main message of this book is that human activity irreversibly altered a unique ecosystem in a few decades which evolved over thousands of years. Hydrological disruptions due to aquifer overexploitation resulting from excessive agricultural irrigation, contamination and a series of management interventions that caused more damage than repair form the core of the problem. However, our knowledge is far from complete, especially concerning means to manage the wetland in a way that guarantees both sustainability and development in times of over-exploitation by humans. In addition to summarizing the contents of this book, we will advocate research approaches that could fill remaining information gaps. Critical to the survival of this wetland will not only be scientific progress. An integration of scientific, cultural and historical knowledge in the interaction cycles between ecological, social, political and economic systems should be the ultimate goal. Without this panarchic approach to understanding ecosystems and their management, sustainable development will remain an eternal oxymoron.

“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.”

Aristotle