Nursery Practices with Exotic Conifers in Patagonia, Argentina, and Some Reasons to Afforest the Region with These Species
The southern portion of Argentina is called Patagonia, and is located between 37° and 55° south latitude. Across this region, there is a strong topographic and environmental gradient. Precipitation decreases from the western mountains towards the east and temperatures from north to south. These geographic gradients impose different structural patterns of soils and vegetation, as well as different patterns of ecosystem functioning (soil water dynamics, nutrient cycling, net primary production, etc). Forests dominate the more humid west Andean-Patagonian Region, predominantly on Andisols, in other words, volcanic soils (1,000 to 3,000 mm rainfall), while a steady transition from grasslands to scattered grass and shrub steppes on Aridisols may be found to the east (from 500 to 100 mm rainfall). In the transitional zone between both regions (500 to 1,000 mm), vegetation consists of shrub-grasses with scattered patches of Austrocedrus chilensis on xeric Mollisols, Hiceptisols or Alfisols (Mazzarino and others 1998). As an example of the striking decrease in precipitation, the mesic Valdivian rain forest and the xeric Patagonian steppe are sometimes separated by only 50 km (31 miles) (Montana 1982).
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Author(s): M. Gabriela Buamscha
Publication: National Nursery Proceedings - 2000
Event:
Western Forest and Conservation Nursery Association Conference
2000 - Kona, HI
