Presiones sobre la conservación asociadas al uso de la tierra en las ecorregiones terrestres de la Argentina

Ecoregions are a suitable organization level for the discussion and planning of conservation initiatives at a regional level, due to their spatial continuity and ecological and biophysical homogeneity. The complex interactions between ecological characteristics of ecoregions, local and global socioeconomic changes and land-use change determine that threats and opportunities for conservation within and among ecoregions are unequally distributed. In this article, we performed an updated diagnosis of the main conservation issues associated with land-use change in the terrestrial ecoregions of Argentina. Also, in each ecoregion we identified the main conservation threats derived from land-use change (defined as the anthropic activities that modify the state of natural resources, impacting on their functioning) and organized ecoregions in groups according to their similarity in the incidence of the respective threats, through a cluster analysis. Commercial livestock production and agriculture were among the main threats associated with land-use change in eight and seven terrestrial ecoregions of Argentina, respectively. Other more local threats were also relevant in certain ecoregions, especially for those that are unsuitable for intensive land-uses. We identified four groups according to the incidence of the threats: 1) Monte, Puna and Altos Andes; 2) Bosques Patagónicos; 3) Selva Paranaense and Selva de las Yungas, and 4) Campos y Malezales, Chaco Húmedo, Chaco Seco, Delta e Islas del Paraná, Espinal, Esteros del Iberá, Estepa Patagónica and Pampa. Such grouping of distant ecoregions by common threats would contribute to spatially organize integrated natural resource management policies that go beyond administrative boundaries.