One sentence summary: 2Previously unreported forest areas in dryland biomes increase current estimates of the 3 global forest cover by at least 9 %. 4
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In Latin America, Argentina is second -behind Brazil -in extent of drylands: 55% of its territory. Research on desertification and dryland degradation has a lengthy tradition, being undertaken even prior to the establishment of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The paper aims to analyse desertification research in Argentina, the disciplines from which its knowledge arises and the topics receiving greater attention. The work focuses on the results from descriptive, bibliometric and social network analyses of a sample of articles on desertification in scientific journals indexed in Web of Science. A visual representation of citation relationships was created considering keywords such as 'desertification', 'dry*land*', '*arid' and 'development', 'policy' or 'economy' among others, in 'Argentina'. According to this search, the number of papers per year dealing with desertification in Argentina is only 4·3. National knowledge, usually categorized as traditional knowledge, is barely captured by international databases. The challenge for the scientific community is to make traditional knowledge visible and disseminate the findings. Results demonstrate that desertification research in Argentina is in a great proportion related to studies of soil erosion and soil degradation, and only in a minor proportion to socioeconomic issues. However, desertification problems are the outcome of interactions among physical-biological, socioeconomic and political dimensions, and therefore, the science summoned to analyse them must not only be a science centred on isolated themes but also one resulting from interdisciplinary studies and integrated approaches.
En el presente trabajo se analiza el proceso de configuración territorial de Mendoza, Argentina, representativo de otros pertenecientes a tierras secas de América Latina, en el marco de la concepción de las "nuevas periferias" asociadas a la reestructuración de las economías. La fragmentación territorial actual sería el producto de una misma lógica que, mientras concentra recursos, población y poder en una pequeña porción del territorio -los oasis irrigados-, lo hace a costa del despojo o agotamiento de recursos y grupos sociales minoritarios de los espacios desérticos. Éstos no tienen cabida en el imaginario local, no forman parte de la identidad de su sociedad y constituyen verdaderos "espacios invisibles" que se integran al modelo desde su subordinación, su vulnerabilidad, y se aproximan progresivamente a la exclusión.
RESUMENLa Llanura de la Travesía se extiende en las provincias de Mendoza y San Luis (Argentina) entre el piedemonte de los Andes y las Sierras Pampeanas. El objetivo de este trabajo fue reconstruir las condiciones ambientales de la Llanura de la Travesía a principios del siglo XIX combinando la información de diversas fuentes documentales. Se utilizó como base un testimonio del Comandante Don Faustino Ansay, levantado en 1802 ante la necesidad de verificar el estado del camino de la Travesía o camino Real que unía Corocorto (actual Villa de La Paz) con San Luis. Esta información se complementó con el testimonio de otros viajeros que recorrieron el camino. Este análisis reveló un gradiente similar al actual, en términos de un aumento de la complejidad de la vegetación en el sentido oeste-este. Sin embargo, la ausencia de Aspidosperma quebrachoblanco sugiere cambios en la distribución de algunas especies que deberán ponerse a prueba con nuevas observaciones. Se comprueba la validez de la utilización de información documental para reconstruir la vegetación del pasado y detectar cambio ambientales.Palabras clave: historia ambiental, "Monte", espinal, reconstrucción de la vegetación.
ABSTRACTThe Llanura de la Travesía extends in the Mendoza and San Luis provinces between the Andean piedmont and the Sierras Pampeanas. The goal of this study was to reconstruct the vegetation and soil characteristics of the Llanura de la Travesía during early 1800s by means of a combinationg of information from several documentary sources. The reconstruction was based mainly on the reports of Don Faustino Ansay, recorded in 1802 to verify the state of the Camino de la Travesía or Real (Royal Road) from Corocorto (present Villa de la Paz) to San Luis. This information was complemented with field notes from other travelers along the road. Our results revealed that plant cover and density increased from west to east, as it is observed today. However, the absence of Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco in the Ansay´s report, suggests that changes in the distribution of some tree species have occurred. This study validates the use of documental information to reconstruct past vegetation and soil characteristics. This information can be used as a valuable tool to detect environmental changes.
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