Preliminary study of argentinian patagonic lakes with GIS and BIOCLIM

SCORDO, F.; FERRELLI, F.; PICCOLO, M.C.; PERILLO, G.M.E.

Bahía Blanca

Workshop; GLEON 15; 2013

Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía

The concept of lakes as "sentinel of climate change" involves how the structure and functioning of these surface water ecosystems respond under climate variability and change. The Fontana, Muster and Colhué Huapi lakes and Florentino Ameghino Dam are located in the Senguer River watershed in the South West of the Chubut Province in the Patagonia region. The area has the distinction of being the only one in America where an analysis of the influence of climate and topography along a transcontinental transect can be made when interconnected with lakes at the same latitude on the Chilean side of the Andes. These water bodies are located along a significant gradient of temperature, precipitation and topography. The objective of this study is to present a preliminary study of precipitation and temperature related to topography in the study area using Geographic Information System and the Bioclim climatic model. A Digital Terrain Model (DTM) was built from data provided by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN, Argentina), allowing the subdivision of the Senguer watershed in High, Medium and Low topography. Employing the Bioclim climatic model, we characterized seasonal temperatures and precipitation for the region. Thus, we observed a significant relationship between topography and meteorological parameters. Future studies will evaluate the particular behavior of each of these reservoirs depending on climate and topographic characteristics.