OF MICE AND MEN: SMALL MAMMALS AND LAND USE IN CENTRAL ARGENTINA

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• Carlos Gonzalez Fischer. Biodiversity and Agroecosystems Research Group. University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Friday 17 February 2012, 13:00-14:00
• Part II Lecture Theatre.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez.

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The pampean region is a vast plain extending across central Argentina. Cattle was introduced in the XVIth century but it was the introduction of crops and their continuous expansion during the XIXth century, what turned it into one of the main grain production regions of the world. Since the 1950s, technological advances permitted the further expansion of crops and the intensification of pampean production systems. More recently, the introduction of genetically modified soybean and the adoption of no-tillage systems in the mid 1990s marked the beginning of a new stage in pampean agriculture. Each one of these stages in agricultural development had had an impact in the pampean ecosystems and in their biodiversity: grazing by cattle altered the structure of the original grasslands; crops were associated with the expansion of several bird species (and the retraction of many others), and the agricultural intensification in the XXth century caused great problems with soil erosion, to name a few. Furthermore, the effects of the most recent changes in land use and management practices on biodiversity had been the focus of several studies regarding weeds, insects and birds. Although there have been several studies on the small mammal assemblages of the region, most of them predate the most recent land use changes took place and they were mostly concentrated in a small area. During this talk I will take you through my PhD project, the first coordinated effort to describe the small mammal assemblages in agroecosystems of Buenos Aires province (central Argentina) to analyze their associations with land use at different spatial scales.

This talk is part of the Ecology Lunchtime Seminars series.

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