Capacity building for freshwater insect studies in northern Patagonia, Argentina: DARWIN Initiative programme

BROOKS, S J., L. HERNÁNDEZ, J MASSAFERRO, G. SPINELLI & M PENN

REVISTA DE LA SOCIEDAD ENTOMOLóGICA ARGENTINA

SOCIEDAD ENTOMOLÓGICA ARGENTINA

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2009 vol. 68 p. 145 - 154

0373-5680

ABSTRACT. This project was funded from September 2006 for three years by the British Government’s Darwin Initiative programme. The focus of our project is the study of aquatic insects from Nahuel Huapi National Park (NHNP) in Patagonia, Argentina. The park includes a wide range of wetlands, including montane streams,  lowland  lakes and marshes, distributed within temperate rainforest and arid steppe. The material will be identified and stored in a fully referenced and accessible collection at La Plata Museum and the Natural History Museum, London. Darwin Initiative funding has been used to equip a biodiversity laboratory at National Park Headquarters in Bariloche and also a field station at Puerto Blest. Information on the insect species in NHNP will be entered into a GIS database, together with a vegetation classification and wetland characteristics,  to model  freshwater  insect data  spatially and create a biodiversity database,  the  first of  its kind  in Patagonia. We hope that the experiences we gain during the project, the insect collections and databases, the publications, and the many other products, will be used to further enhance wetland conservation  throughout Argentina and  southern South America.