Overview of the geography of the Monte Desert biome (Argentina)

In arid regions throughout the world, shallow phreatic aquifers feed natural oases of much higher productivity than would be expected solely from local rainfall. In South America, the presence of well-developed Prosopis flexuosa woodlands in the Monte Desert region east of the Andes has puzzled scientists for decades. Today these woodlands provide crucial subsistence to local populations, including descendants of the indigenous Huarpes. We explore the vulnerability and importance of phreatic groundwater for the productivity of the region, comparing the contributions of local rainfall to that of remote mountain recharge that is increasingly being diverted for irrigated agriculture before it reaches the desert. We combined deep soil coring, plant measurements, direct water-table observations, and stable-isotopic analyses (2H and 18O) of meteoric, surface, and ground waters at three study sites across the region, comparing woodland stands, bare dunes, and surrounding shrublands. The isotopic composition of p...

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Water subsidies from mountains to deserts: their role in sustaining groundwater-fed oases in a sandy landscape

Human ecology, ethnobotany and traditional practices in rural populations inhabiting the Monte region: Resilience and ecological knowledge

Climate change will increasingly impact large areas of South America, affecting important natural resources and people’s livelihoods. These impacts will make rural people disproportionately more vulnerable, given their dependency on ecosystem services and their exposure to other stressors, such as new rules imposed by agribusiness and trends toward the commodification of natural resources. This paper focuses on the vulnerability of rural communities in Andean drylands of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, showing how different economic and political pathways lead to different levels of vulnerability. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the methodological and theoretical concept of vulnerability, which framed the research. Starting from the premise that global environmental change impacts are strongly linked to styles of development, the discussion explores the diverse institutional capital and governance schemes as well as different development styles in the case studies and their role in increasing or reducing local vulnerability to climate and water scarcity. Using a comparative perspective, the exposures and adaptive capacities of rural actors in three river basins are discussed, emphasizing situations that speak for the ways in which development styles counteract or magnify conditions of vulnerability. The analysis considers irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture, water property interests, different productive structures (viticulture, horticulture, etc.), producer typologies (large/small, export, etc.), and geographical location. Finally, the paper offers some insights about development style and adaptive capacities of rural people to overcome those vulnerabilities.

Development, local livelihoods, and vulnerabilities to global environmental change in the South American Dry Andes

The increasing evidence of global warming calls on all states to enhance their adaptive capacity to deal with climate change. This paper compares the adaptive capacity of two Canadian provinces, the province of Mendoza, Argentina and the administrative region of Coquimbo, Chile in relation to the vulnerability of farmers to droughts and floods by applying the adaptive capacity wheel (ACW). It concludes that Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada are particularly weak in terms of double- and triple-loop learning and in developing adaptive capacity in an equitable manner, probably attributable to strong climate scepticism in society and the weak economy. In the developing countries of Chile and Argentina, resources to assist with adaptation are often lacking; in Coquimbo, future learning is precarious because of information deficits in relation to data, memory, trust, and responsiveness; in Mendoza, institutions lack variety (redundancy of programs), resources, and governance processes are inadequately responsive. The paper makes contributions at the regional level by recommending that specific institutional weaknesses and lack of responsiveness be remedied by adopting appropriate missing instruments (perhaps, for example, water transfer provisions in Mendoza). New findings are made in relation to the dimensions of fair governance and learning capacity in the ACW. While learning capacity was closely linked to the dimension of leadership, the deficit of equity was closely linked to other indicators of fair governance (legitimacy, responsiveness, and accountability).

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10113-016-1078-0.pdf

The adaptive capacity of institutions in Canada, Argentina, and Chile to droughts and floods

Resumen: En el presente trabajo se analiza el proceso de con-figuracion territorial de Mendoza,Argentina,represen-tativo de otros pertenecientes a tierras secas de AmericaLatina, en el marco de la concepcion de las “nuevasperiferias” asociadas a la reestructuracion de las eco-nomias.La fragmentacion ter ritorial actual seria el pro-ducto de una misma logica que, mientras concentrarecursos, poblacion y poder en una pequena por-cion del territorio —los oasis irrigados—, lo hace acosta del despojo o agotamiento de recursos y grupos * Investigadora del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas( CONICET ),Instituto de Ciencias Humanas,Sociales y Ambientales ( INCIHUSA ), Labo-ratorio de Desertificacion y Ordenamiento Territorial ( LADYOT ),Instituto Argentinode Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas ( IADIZA ), Centro Regional de InvestigacionesCientificas y Tecnologicas ( CRICYT ).Con la colaboracion de Maria Eugenia Fusari ySilvia Urbina.Telefono: (54-261)4280080/4288314, direccion postal: Ruiz Leals/n, Parque General San Martin, (5500), Mendoza,Argentina. Correo electronico:emontana@lab.cricyt.edu.ar ** Becaria del

http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/regsoc/v17n32/v17n32a1.pdf

Los espacios invisibles: Subordinación, marginalidad y exclusión de los territorios no irrigados en las tierras secas de Mendoza, Argentina

Desde los objetivos de la equidad territorial, las tierras secan muestran un perverso patron de distribucion de la poblacion con relacion a la oferta de recursos. El presente trabajo analiza esta problematica en dos estudios de caso de Mendoza (en el centro-oeste de Argentina), representativos de fenomenos comunes a otras tierras secas de Argentina. Asi, el analisis de las dicotomias resultantes entre zonas de cordillera y de llanura y entre zonas de oasis y zonas no regadas muestra una logica de hegemonizacion de espacios y uso instrumental de recursos de acuerdo a modelos de desarrollo que, al tiempo que otorgan predominio a unos espacios, se sirven de los recursos de otros, apoyandose en la reafirmacion de las condiciones de subalternidad social. Los espacios marginales resultan condenados a perpetuar su condicion de desigualdad y a hacer un uso no sostenible de los pocos recursos disponibles para asegurar minimos niveles de subsistencia.

Acceso a los recursos y distribución de la población en tierras secas de Argentina: el caso de Mendoza. Aportes hacia la equidad territorial

A partir de los viejos abordajes que privilegiaban casi univocamente la incidencia de los factores naturales, las construcciones en torno al concepto de desertificacion han ido enriqueciendose a traves de los anos con la incorporacion de las dimensiones social, economica, politica y cultural. Particularmente hacia la decada de 1990, estas nuevas miradas han favorecido que en los estudios de la desertificacion se hagan presentes los conceptos de sensibilizacion de la sociedad civil, actores, tomadores de decisiones y equidad territorial, los abordajes participativos y los procesos de planificacion de "abajo hacia arriba", entre otros. En forma paralela a este proceso, y dado que la Convencion de las Naciones Unidas de Lucha contra la Desertificacion (CCD / PNUMA, 1995 y CNUMAD, 1999) utiliza como ejes de su accionar las propuestas y acciones de planificacion en el nivel local, nacional y regional; los objetivos de seguimiento de la desertificacion y las acciones desarrolladas para combatirla han valorado recientemente la utilizacion de indicadores y puntos de referencia (benchmarks) como herramientas validas para optimizar los procesos en torno a la evaluacion, monitoreo y lucha contra la desertificacion.

http://eial.tau.ac.il/index.php/eial/article/download/344/313

La utilización de indicadores socio-económicos en el estudio y la lucha contra la desertificación: acuerdos, discrepancias y problemas conceptuales subyacentes.

Eduardo Torres

Papers

Los espacios invisibles: Subordinación, marginalidad y exclusión de los territorios no irrigados en las tierras secas de Mendoza, Argentina

Acceso a los recursos y distribución de la población en tierras secas de Argentina: el caso de Mendoza. Aportes hacia la equidad territorial

La utilización de indicadores socio-económicos en el estudio y la lucha contra la desertificación: acuerdos, discrepancias y problemas conceptuales subyacentes.