Substitution of nativa grassland the Basin of the Quequén Grande river (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) during the period 1998-2008

PATRICIA VAZQUEZ; LAURA ZULAICA; MÓNICA SACIDO

Rosario

Congreso; IX International Rangeland Congress; 2011

Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) y Asociación Argentina para el Manejo de Pastizales Naturales (AAMPN)

Grassland ecosystems generally present an extremely low level of protection due to the fact that they are suitable lands for agriculture and stockbreeding. These activities substitute original vegetation and generate different environmental impacts whose intensity and dimension vary according to the different adopted productive models. Agroproductive changes in Argentina have been analyzed in previous studies (among them, Sarandon, 2002) and are verified in data derived from official sources (INTA, INDEC, SAGPyA). The Basin of the Quequén Grande river (BrQG), located in southern Pampa, is 9944 km2  and presents a clear tendency to the so-called ?process of agricultural development?, which expands to the detriment of natural grassland. In this context, the hereby work has as objective to analyze the transformations in the BrQG associated with the changes in the productivity models in the period 1998 (damp period) and 2008 (dry period) and to identify their main impacts on natural grassland.