Projects in progress

Biomes or anthromes in Northwest Argentina: land use, desertification, conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity, environmental services, global drivers, and regional governance.

"This project aims to update the information on the ecosystems of Northwestern Argentina (NOA) and their relationship with changes in land use. In addition, it focuses on strengthening the sustainable management of the regionby promoting coexistence between biodiversity and human activities. Using a multidisciplinary and participatory approach, the project seeks to generate resources and tools to monitor, and for planning of the region."


Experimento de exclusion de flores en arándanos

Funding Source: PICT 2022, Cat II - “Institutional Leap”

Summary: In Northwest Argentina (NOA), the changes in land use and cover will be linked to the functioning of new ecosystems, providing tools to plan the coexistence between biodiversity and human activities in order to improve the sustainable management and regional governance in the context of global changes. We have two main objectives:

Objective 1: to update, strengthen, and synthesize the available information on the state and evolution of the socio-ecosystems of NOA, and to develop resources for management processes based on co-design principles, assisting in the development and application of monitoring, control, and implementation tools.

Objective 2: to cross-cut the regional socio-ecological vision by understanding the interactions between different ecosystems of NOA and the drivers of socioeconomic changes at both local and global levels. In particular:

  1. Chaco block: we will update the patterns of agricultural-livestock expansion and changes in the Chaco forest structure, combining it with species distribution and biomass models. We will evaluate the pollination services and pest control in soybean crops in relation to landscape configuration, as well as trends in agricultural sustainability related to hydrology.
  2. Yungas block: we will analyze the dynamics of Yungas forests at different elevations, and plant-animal interactions considering environments with varying levels of human impact.
  3. Arid Mountain Systems block: we will model the geographical patterns of biodiversity and carbon stock in vegetation, wetlands and mountain agroecosystems in NOA.
  4. Urban Matrix block: we will develop an environmental monitoring system for cities and urban-rural interfaces.
  5. Developing Resources to Increase Resilience and Sustainability of Anthromes block: we will contextualize the socio-ecological and regional changes in NOA within demographic, land use and land cover trends in Latin America. We will promote co-design and co-production processes of regional research.

With this project, we aim to capitalize on the experiences gained in each thematic axis to define the anthromes of the systems in NOA in which we have been working. We propose to cross-cut our local research lines at the regional, national, and international levels to develop resources in co-design and co-production of scientific information among diverse local and regional actors, both public and private.

Team Members: All members of the IER
Contact: Ramiro OVEJERO AGUILAR ovejerorama@gmail.com