Landscape Change and Associated Increase in Habitat Fragmentation During the Last 30 Years in Coastal Sand Dunes of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

Austrich, Ailin; Mapelli, Fernando J.; Mora, Matías S.; Kittlein, Marcelo J.

doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00798-x

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…The remaining periods (1999-2000, 2006-2007, and 2019-2020) were not supported with available ground truth data. Therefore, adopting a similar approach to that implemented previously by [44,46], 200 pixels were randomly distributed across the study area for each remaining period; the pixels' ground truth land cover were visually interpreted using both high resolution Google Earth imagery and spectral signatures. A 200 pixel-based contingency matrix was used to assess the unsupervised classifications' accuracies for each remaining period.…”

Section: Land Cover Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperate Grassland Afforestation Dynamics in the Aguapey Valuable Grassland Area between 1999 and 2020: Identifying the Need for Protection

2021

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Temperate grasslands are considered the most endangered terrestrial ecosystem worldwide; the existent areas play a key role in biodiversity conservation. The Aguapey Valuable Grassland Area (VGA), one of the most well-preserved temperate grassland areas within Argentina, is currently threatened by the anthropogenic expansion of exotic tree plantations. Little is known about the impacts of afforestation over temperate grassland landscape structures; therefore, the aim of this study is to characterize Aguapey VGA landscape structural changes between 1999 and 2020 based on remotely sensed data. This involves the generation of land cover maps for four annual periods based on unsupervised classification of Landsat 5 TM and 8 OLI images, the estimation of landscape metrics, and the transition analysis between land cover types and annual periods. The area covered by temperate grassland is shown to have decreased by almost 22% over the 20 year-period studied, due to the expansion of tree plantation cover. The afforestation process took place mainly between 1999 and 2007 in the northern region of the Aguapey VGA, which led first to grassland perforation and subsequently to grassland attrition; however, Aguapey’s cultural tradition of cattle ranching could have partially inhibited the expansion of exotic trees over the final years of the study. The evidence of grassland loss and fragmentation within the Aguapey VGA should be considered as an early warning to promote the development of sustainable land use policies, mainly focused towards the Aguapey VGA’s southern region where temperate grassland remains the predominant land cover type.

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Section: Land Cover Characterizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperate Grassland Afforestation Dynamics in the Aguapey Valuable Grassland Area between 1999 and 2020: Identifying the Need for Protection

2021

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“…Ctenomys talarum is a species that, unlike many others of its genus, presents a broader distribution (although quite fragmented today) within the Pampas region, Argentina. This species occupies both sandy soils on the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires province (Austral and Eastern Sand-dune Barriers; Isla et al, 1996 ; Isla and Lasta, 2010 ; Austrich et al, 2020a ), and some minor inland areas (relictual and isolated populations) with increasingly harder, humid and vegetated soils far from the coast in Buenos Aires and La Pampa provinces ( Malizia et al, 1991 ; Vassallo, 1998 ; Busch et al, 2000 ; Justo et al, 2003 ; Mora et al, 2006 , 2007 , 2013 ; Fernández et al, 2019 ). On the Atlantic coast, its distribution is roughly linear and their populations are more continuous than inland areas, where the presence of this species is highly patchy distributed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Redefining the Distributional Boundaries and Phylogenetic Relationships for Ctenomids From Central Argentina

et al. 2021

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With about 68 recognized living species, subterranean rodents of the genus Ctenomys are found in a multiplicity of habitats, from the dunes of the Atlantic coast to the Andes Mountains, including environments ranging from humid steppes of Pampas to the dry deserts of Chaco region. However, this genus needs an exhaustive reevaluation of its systematic and phylogenetic relationships regarding the different groups that compose it. This knowledge is essential to propose biodiversity conservation strategies both at species level and at higher hierarchical levels. In order to clarify the taxonomy and the recent evolutionary history from populations of Ctenomys in the Pampas region, Argentina, phylogenetic relationships among them were evaluated using mitochondrial DNA sequences: gene encoding cytochrome b protein (1,140 bp) and the non-coding D-loop region (434 bp). To infer the divergence times inside the Ctenomys clade, a Bayesian calibrate tree using fossil remains data from different families within Caviomorpha was performed at first. Secondly, that calibration data was used as priors in a new Bayesian phylogenetic inference within the genus Ctenomys. This phylogenetic tree emphasized on species currently distributed on the Pampas region, more precisely considering both the talarum and mendocinus groups. Bayesian inferences (BI) were integrated with the results of a Maximum Likelihood approach (ML). Based on these results, the distributional limits of the mendocinus and talarum groups appear to be related to the physiognomy of the Pampas region soils. On the other hand, the validity of C. pundti complex as a differentiated species of C. talarum is debated. According to previous evidence from morphological and chromosomal studies, these results show a very low divergence between those species that originally were classified within the talarum group. Mitochondrial DNA sequences from populations associated with these putative species have not recovered as reciprocal monophyletic groups in the phylogenetic analyses. In conclusion, C. talarum and C. pundti complex might be considered as the same biological species, or lineages going through a recent or incipient differentiation process. The results obtained in this study have important implications for conservation policies and practices, since both species are currently categorized as Vulnerable and Endangered, respectively.

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Potential distribution models from two highly endemic species of subterranean rodents of Argentina: which environmental variables have better performance in highly specialized species?

et al. 2021

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Landscape Change and Associated Increase in Habitat Fragmentation During the Last 30 Years in Coastal Sand Dunes of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

Cited by 6 publications

References 49 publications

Temperate Grassland Afforestation Dynamics in the Aguapey Valuable Grassland Area between 1999 and 2020: Identifying the Need for Protection

Temperate Grassland Afforestation Dynamics in the Aguapey Valuable Grassland Area between 1999 and 2020: Identifying the Need for Protection

Redefining the Distributional Boundaries and Phylogenetic Relationships for Ctenomids From Central Argentina

Potential distribution models from two highly endemic species of subterranean rodents of Argentina: which environmental variables have better performance in highly specialized species?

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