Regional Integrations in Arid Central West Argentina: Trends and Expectations from a Human Paleoecological framework

GIL, A.; CORBAT, M.; FERNÁNDEZ, F.; GIARDINA, M.; ZANGRANDO, A. F.; NEME, G.; OTAOLA, C.; SALGAN, L.; ROJO, L. D.; CORTEGOSO, V.; DURÁN, V. ; PALMA, M. S.

Southampton

Workshop; PAGES: Regional integration of past records for management of modern resources and landscapes; 2010

PAGES

We will focus in Mendoza province and basically in its southern portion. Desertification could be mentioned as one among different environmental problems within Mendoza. Some researches mention an increase in the desertification process during the last centuries and a general change in landscape after the European arrival (C. XVI). It has been proposed, as hypothesis, that present environment is a consequence of the negative impact due to the introduction of Euroasiatic domestic animals, which could have generated the current desertification process. Climatic change in the last century -namely Little Age Ice, and the volcanic activity- could have made this process even more dramatic. If so,the present environmental structure is not a pristine relic of past environment now degraded.