May 2013
Some very interesting weeks for
the future of agriculture in the desert of Coahuila just ended. The state
government, in coordination with the National Water Commission and the National
Commission of Protected Areas, closed several illegal wells in Cuatro Ciénegas,
and are already making the "inventory" of legal users and putting
gauges to know how much water they use, and how much they have to use.
On the other hand, two agronomists
from Beta Santa Mónica (Chava Ordaz y Edgar Ramirez) arrived to my laboratory
on Monday. Martín Carrillo, who is working with us as the leader of the project
of environmental education in the CBTA22, and Nadia Casanova, the teacher that
coordinates the Biology courses in the CBTA, their mission: to learn how to
take DNA from soil, bacteria and fish, and find molecular
markers to solve specific problems. What kind of problems?
1. We discovered that neither
the CBTA’s alfalfa nor the one that Beta uses (both in el Hundido and in
Torreon) are establishing nitrogen-fixing nodules. This doesn’t surprise me
from the CBTA’s alfalfas, but the ones from Torreon, and from El Hundido where
a small fortune is spend to buy an inoculum of Rhizobium meliloti, the symbiotic of alfalfa, did.
For those who don’t know
anything about the subject, a good part of the leguminous plants are capable,
from millions of years ago, of establishing ‘a little house with food and
protection’ for soil-bacteria of the Rhizobiaceae family; the ‘house’ is a
structure in the root that is called nodule. This evolutionary courtesy is not
for free, in exchange of housing and food, the bacteria that live inside the
nodule work like slaves to break the triple bond that joins the dinitrogen
molecule (N2) making this gas, so abundant in the atmosphere, to become
ammonium NH3, which is an available form of N for life. In a natural way this
works if the ‘conversation’ between plant and bacteria is formed by legitimate
molecular signals. Therefore the beans recognize the Rhizobium etli, its particular symbiont, as native
from Mexico as the bean, the alfalfa that is native from Turkey recognizes the Rhizobium meliloti, and therefore, outside Turkey and Southern Europe,
the alfalfas have to be artificially inoculated. The problem is that the
Mexican soil is so rich in its own bacteria that the foreign ones can’t
survive, the agronomists didn’t know this; they thought that everything was in
order.
2. To be able to know if there is a natural capacity to set nitrogen, you have to go directly to the source, that is, searching for the enzyme responsible of breaking the triple bond of N2. This is called nitrogenase and is encoded by several genes, one of them is called nifH, and is the one that we will look for directly on the floor of CBTA, Torreon, and El Hundido, using isolated colonies from the soil around the root or directly in the total DNA on the ground…If the molecular biology laboratory of the CBTA22 can assemble these techniques, they could check not only their soil capacities, but also the capacities of the farmers in the region, and this way the students learn, provide a service to the community, and that service pays them off!!!
3. Chava, Edgar and Martín,
along with the students of the CBTA22 are going to set up experiments with
beans and other leguminous plants to see what kind of leguminous can in fact
nodule and fix nitrogen in the soil of the area.
4. From the biodiversity of the
microbial mats, my laboratory is going to look for inoculums that simultaneously
optimize the soil and plant health, as well as developing molecular markers
that the CBTA22 will use to determine healthy farming practices. In exchange,
the engineers compromised themselves to support the productivity of the CBTA22,
to sanitize their well, to fix the greenhouse, and to bond with the students.
We want the students of the CBTA to be the best prepared in the region to
address the XXI century agriculture with sustainable practices directed by
scientific knowledge.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Cuatrociénegas in March 2013:
There is still hope even at the edge of the cliff.
GOOD NEWS!!!
On Monday March 5, we arrived
to Cuatro Ciénegas (CCC) to a reunion with the agronomists from Beta Santa
Monica and Gustavo Diaz de Leon. The meeting’s idea was to demonstrate the
progress that Beta Santa Monica has been done about the water saving in the
ranch of Tanque Nuevo in the Hundido valley south of CCC. A few months ago, I
asked him to change the variety of alfalfa that he uses, to one that tolerates
drought and that requires less water. I also ask him to irrigate at night to
reduce evaporation.
Guess what?? Gustavo listened to us, and sent his experts
to find more ecological solutions that meet our requirements. First, they went
to an agrarian university in Jalisco, that specializes in ecotechniques, to see
how to save water, and then they went to the US to inquire about a
drought-resistant alfalfa. What they commented at the meeting is that the most
difficult step to take was to accept that the mentality has to change, and that
something new has to be done to allow, in the future, the sustainability of the
CCC oasis.
They now irrigate at night (it was difficult to change the
people’s shifts, and to watch how to monitor the damages at night) a variety of
alfalfa from Nuevo Mexico that is irrigated only once every third day, and in
just a few months several millions of liters of water were saved!!! They now
think that their friends from Torreon have to do the same, since the aquifer of
this place is losing more than one meter a year!!!
Another thing that we did during this trip to CCC, was to
go with those from Beta to the CBTA 22, and by talking with the principal,
Thelma, we agreed that in exchanged of the CBTA’s laboratory, she and her
students will revise the nitrogen fixators in the alfalfa. Those from Beta are going to support
the CBTa with the new greenhouse that the SEP installed them…but that [SEP]
didn’t explain to them how to get it started…ad hoc, Beta Santa Monica is going
to pay for the salary for the two technicians supporting the CBTa.
The first one will be trained, by us, in molecular
techniques so the students can have a service lab that that will produce a
higher yield at the same time that it will educate them, and they will have the
big plus that will allowed them to graduate with a specialty in molecular
markers for agricultural technicians (to detect by PCR and sequences, the
health of crops and animals).
The second one is going to be an expert in greenhouses,
and is going to help them grow cornfields and organic vegetables by drip
irrigation, and in a protected area, parents will be
able to see in a tangible way how this type of agriculture is more profitable
than irrigating by flooding the alfalfa crops.
Next week, Thelma and Martin Carrillo (management expert
who we were lucky enough to hire for the project) will go to Torreon to see how
do they handle the greenhouses, and on April, Martin and the agronomists will
come to our laboratory at the UNAM to see what kind of agricultural problems
they have, and how can we help setting up diagnostic techniques that they can
implement in the CBTa’s lab. This will close a virtuous circle that will not
only change the way industrialists from Torreon see the water but also benefit
themselves by helping to educate the community of CCC through their youth.
At night we saw Arturo Gonzalez, from the desert museum,
and his team of paleontologists. He told us that the government of Coahuila
finally closed the purchase of La Becerra, and that they want our help to make
a site museum. On the other hand,
they told us that PRONATURA had bought the right over 250,000 cubic meters of
water a year for the recharge of the Garabatal, and with all that, they hoped
to at least partially restore the wetland.
On Tuesday, march 5, we went with a group of students from
the CBTa 22, my PhD student, Mirna, and the people from CINVESTAV to Pozas
Rojas to collect. I was impressed by how much the young people from the CBTa
have changed in just a few months of being interns and how they have a much
better idea of what ecology is. After that, we went to the CBTa’s lab to
isolate the collected microbes, and again I was surprise by how well the
students learned what Manuel Rosas taught them in November and December of
2012. Now follows that they will teach to Martin Carillo how to extract and
amplify DNA.
Wednesday March 7, along with the teachers of
CONCENTRARTE, I gave a little talk to the kindergartners about what a scientist
does in CCC, and why the water from this place is so special. Then, changing
the setting, Gabriela Olmedo from the CINVESTAV explains to the students of the
CBTa, what a sequence means, and how to decipher the code; he made a tree WITH
THE SEQUENCES OBTAINED BY THE STUDENTS OF THE CBTa!!! This is the first effort in Mexico to make high school level ecology. It
was very, very exciting. What follows are not only the samples of Pozas Rojas,
which they began to process, but the comparison with the bacteria from the
water they drink or irrigate their crops; this way they will compare what is
“native” to the oasis, with what is associated to us humans. The results are
going to be presented at the 3rd congress of Biochemistry and
Bacteria’s Molecular Biology which will be held at CCC on October of this year.
After that, we went to Churince and
there was water!!! In just 3 weeks that the Garabatal was recharged, the
Churince raised its level!!! And we saw 3 turtles swimming…not too much fish.
THERE IS STILL HOPE EVEN ON THE
EDGE OF THE CLIFF.
Valeria
Souza
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Thursday January 30, I flew to Saltillo to reunite with the team
of social communication from SEMARNAT, CAN, CONANP, PROFEPA and invited
journalists.
On the airport I had to give them a small press conference to
explain them what does Cuatro Ciénegas means to science. In the route to Cuatro
Ciénegas, the journalists and I continued talking. We got there by noon, tired
but enthusiastic to see more. Juan Carlos Ibarra, the person in charge of the
protected area, took us to la Becerra and explained what does a wetland means;
then he took us to the ejido of Cuatro Ciénegas to see both the threat (alfalfa
irrigated by flooding) and the hope for the place. There, Oscar and three other
ejidatarios (holder of a share
in common lands) have opted to see
things different; they have, in simple greenhouses, vegetable cactus irrigated
by drip. Entering the greenhouse immediately gives you not only another
temperature but an odor of organic matter and fertile soil. It is a true
pleasure to see the cactuses big and healthy. By showing the journalists the
difference between an abandoned, and non-nutrient, white and salty parcel’s
soil (the alfalfa absorbs too much water and nutrients leaving the soil bald
and with nothing to offer) with the halophytic pasture (interesting and
heterogenic in texture and color) and with the one at the cactus’ greenhouse
(black and rich in organic matter), is quite evident which one is the desirable
agricultural practice to let to your children!!! And not to say saving the most
old and interesting ecosystem in the world…
At night I had dinner with Omar Vidal and the WWF team. They
informed me that neither the governor of Coahuila, the SEMARNT’ secretary nor
the water comission secretary (CNA) were coming because some ejidatarios were paid by ‘obscure
forces’ (Jose Barrios, former manager of Coahuila’s CNA is my bet) to make a
riot.
On Friday February 1, Luis Fueyo and Englantina Canales arrived
anyway to make from the Mezquites River a beautiful scenery for the
international wetlands day. Omar, Englantina and Luis spoke marvelously. The
ejidatarios that are opting to save Ciénegas were awarded, and the 5 rioters
with banners were heard…the argument was incredible!!! I want to keep
irrigating: as I want to, what I want to, and because I want to!!!
By bringing Luis Fueyo and Englantina Canales with their people to
a fishless Churince with less water than ever, on February, the argument of
doing whatever you want, whenever you want to, sounded truly criminal.
It’s a good thing that tomorrow comes into force the ban, and that
the users of the wells and rainfall runoff will have to get in line. Who says,
[maybe] by praying for several storms, and by applying the law seriously this
paradise still can be saved.
Wednesday
December 5, 2012
I can’t believe it!! The last action of Felipe Calderon on
November 30 was to sign the Cuatro Ciénegas-Ocampo-Lamadrid ban, and put it in
the official diary!!! Check it out.
It is not a perfect decree, but is perfectible and most of
all, any legislation is MUCH better than none.
We have to maintain the surveillance over what the new national water comission (CNA) is going to do about it; mostly, we have to cross our fingers so Luis Fueyo continues
as the commissioner of protected areas, without a doubt we own this
accomplishment to his administration.
On the other hand, what is needed with real urgency is a consciousness
shift from both the water users and the responsible of making the law to be
fulfilled. If this does not occur, no ban is worth, because for example, In El
Hundido there is a ban and Florentino Rivera Jr. fails to comply it, and no one says anything…
Who says, maybe the change announced by the Mayas is
precisely this, a change in our perception and in our conscience, to think more
in the common good than in small selfish victories. I still believe in
miracles.
