Divergences of land systems of South Americas primary soybean regions

MARÍA PIQUER-RODRÍGUEZ; H. RICARDO GRAU; N. IGNACIO GASPARRI; LUCÍA ZARBÁ

Berna

Congreso; 4th Open Science Meeting of the Global Land Programme; 2019

Global Land Programme

The landscape configuration of socio-ecological land systems results from the interaction betweenthe environmental conditions (relatively homogeneous within ecoregions) and country-level land-use decisions and management. However, social, land-use and sustainability research disciplinesoften study each entity independently. We explored the geographical patterns of human inducedasymmetries in land systems of trans-national ecoregions in South America. The most asymmetricborders occurred in the tropical rain forest biome which also showed the widest range ofasymmetries among ecoregions. In contrast, montane grasslands showed comparatively littleasymmetries, while tropical dry forests showed intermediate differences. Our results support twogeneral hypotheses: (1) that major asymmetries occur in developing land systems located inproductive biomes with a comparatively recent history of land development, whereas maturesocio-ecosystems with a long history of human land use are more homogeneous across borders;and (2) land system asymmetries across borders may be transient conditions reflecting differentstages of national economic development, but some asymmetries may stabilize as a consequencesof reinforcing feedbacks (i.e., land zonation). Rigorous assessment of these hypotheseis isimportant for defining the role and potential socio-ecological impacts of national policies indefining the spatial configuration and ecological properties of ecoregions. We invite land-use andsustainability scientists to consider border interactions in their studies in order to achieve a holisticunderstanding of land systems.