INTRODUCTION

TORRES AMÉRICO I.; CAMPODÓNICO VERENA A.

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF PATAGONIA´S WATER RESOURCES

Springer Nature

Año: 2021; p. 5 - 8

Continental Patagonia (between 36° and 54° S) covers an area of about 700,000 km2 in southern South America. This austral region includes the Argentine provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego?s Island. Its northern boundary in Argentina is defined by the Colorado River, whose headwaters are located at the Andes. Climate in the region is controlled by westerlies dynamics that blow from the Pacific Ocean, discharging most of their moisture on the Andes ranges and continuing as dry winds towards the East. Thus, climate is classified as humid cold at the Andes, and arid in the steppe. Rainfall is mainly concentrated between the late austral winter and the early spring, and it ranges from 2700 mm year-1 at the boundary between Argentina and Chile to 500 mm year-1 at the steppe. Mean annual temperature ranges from 8 °C at high latitudes (above 2000 m a.s.l.) to 20 °C at the valleys, whereas it varies between 7.5 °C and 12.5 °C at the steppe.The southernmost tip of South America (i.e. south of ca. 40° S) supplies important amountsof aeolian and fluvial terrigenous material to the South Atlantic Ocean. Besides, rivers transport nutritional material to the marine coastal zone, which benefit biological communities, contributing to the preservation of marine ecosystems. In this sense, the Patagonian coastline is well known for its biological diversity. Important breeding sanctuaries for whales, and other large and small marine mammals, seabirds, innumerable species of fish and crustaceans can be found here.