INVESTIGADORES
LENCINAS Maria Vanessa
artículos
Título:
Spatial patterns of cultural ecosystem services provision in Southern Patagonia
Autor/es:
MARTÍNEZ PASTUR, G; PERI, P; LENCINAS, MV; GARCÍA-LLORENTE, M; MARTÍN-LÓPEZ, B
Revista:
LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY
Editorial:
SPRINGER
Referencias:
Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2016 vol. 31 p. 383 - 399
ISSN:
0921-2973
Resumen:
Context Although thereis a need to develop a spatially explicit methodological approach that addressesthe social importance of cultural ecosystem services for regional planning, fewstudies have analysed the spatial distribution on the cultural ecosystemservices based on social perceptions. Objective The mainobjective of this study was to identify cultural ecosystem service hot-spots,and factors that characterize such hot-spots and define the spatialassociations between cultural ecosystem services in Southern Patagonia(Argentina). Methods The study wascarried out in Southern Patagonia (243.9 thousand km2) located between 46º and55º SL with the Andes mountains on the western fringe and the Atlantic Ocean onthe eastern fringe of the study area. The study region has a range of differentvegetation types (grasslands, shrub-lands, peat-lands and forests) though thecold arid steppe is the main vegetation type. We used geo-tagged digital imagesthat local people and visitors posted in the Panoramio web platform to identifyhot-spots of tour cultural ecosystem services (aesthetic value, existentevalue, recreation and local identity) and relate these hot-spots with socialand biophysical landscape features.Results Aestheticvalue was the main cultural service tagged by people, followed by the existencevalue for biodiversity conservation, followed by local identity and thenrecreational activity. The spatial distribution of these cultural ecosystemservices are associated with different social and biophysical characteristics,such as the presence of water bodies, vegetation types, marine and terrestrialfauna, protected areas, urbanization, accessibility and tourism offer. The mostimportant factors are the presence of water in Santa Cruz and tourism offer inTierra del Fuego.Conclusions Ourresults demonstrate that this methodology is useful for assessing culturalecosystem services at the regional scale, especially in areas with low dataavailability and field accessibility, such as Southern Patagonia. We alsoidentify new research challenges that can be addressed in cultural ecosystemservices research through the use of this method.