About
42
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Introduction
My research is centered on understanding water flowpaths, magnitudes and velocities in subhumid-to-arid mountain catchments. I combine tools from Ecology, Hydrology, Plant Physiology and Geochemistry, while studying plant-water relations and plot and catchment scale ecohydrological processes. Through my research I intend to provide insights on mountain ecosystem services for management and territorial planning.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
November 2018 - present
March 2016 - October 2018
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Water pools and fluxes in subtropical seasonally dry highland ecosystems of central Argentina. I aim at identifying the relative contribution of rain and fog in water pools and fluxes along the year and further testing the two water worlds hypothesis.
May 2015 - present
Editor roles
Education
April 2011 - March 2016
March 2003 - March 2012
March 2003 - December 2009
Publications
Publications (42)
Rivers originating in the granitic highlands of seasonally‐dry central Argentina provide water to two million people. These highlands comprise a complex landscape where a matrix of outcropping rock hosts vegetated‐patches which vary in response to long‐term grazing and fire. We characterized water storage dynamics across 20 sites representing six v...
Aim. A growing number of studies show a discrepancy between the isotopic composition of xylem water and plant water sources. We tested the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on the isotopic composition of Acacia caven xylem water. As the most common plant-fungal association, AMF might explain this isotopic mismatch.
Methods. Seedlings we...
Hosting the flattest sedimentary plains and highest Andean range of the continent, southern South America faces hydrological transformations driven by climate and land use changes. Although water stable isotopes can help understand these transformations, regional synthesis on their composition is lacking. We compiled for the first time a dataset of...
Tracer‐aided studies to understand plant water uptake sources and dynamics in tropical ecosystems are limited. Here, we report the analysis of dry season source water uptake patterns of five unique ecosystems of Costa Rica across altitudinal (<150–3,400 m asl) and latitudinal (Caribbean and Pacific slopes) gradients: evergreen and seasonal rainfore...
The purpose of this study was to assess hydrological controls (e.g., rainfall, irrigation practices, river discharge, dam operation, evaporation) on surface (SW)- ground water (GW) interactions in an irrigated valley within semi-arid Patagonia Argentina (-65.49 W, -43.29 S). We combined different sampling designs (watershed/sub-watershed scales, lo...
Study region: The hilly area of Shandong Peninsula is a pivotal apple-producing region in China. However, the precise water sources utilized by the apple trees for transpiration remain poorly understood in this region. Study focus: Here we quantify the water sources used by apple trees in this area using stable isotopic tracing methods. Through on-...
Bolivia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in South America and is one of the countries with the highest frequency of
forest fires worldwide, leading to a decrease in forest coverage and increased anthropogenic land pressure. The objective of this study was to characterize plant functional traits and determine their relationship with the...
En sistemas con lluvias estacionales, el rendimiento hídrico (caudal de salida del curso de agua relativo al área de la cuenca) en la estación seca depende de las lluvias previas y de la infiltración y la evapotranspiración, procesos que, a su vez, están afectados por las características del paisaje. Nuestro objetivo fue evaluar el efecto de distin...
Plant water source tracing studies often rely on differences in stable isotope composition of different water sources. However, an increasing number of studies has indicated a discrepancy between the isotopic signature of plant xylem water and the water sources assumed to be used by plants. Based on a meta-analysis we have reconfirmed this discrepa...
Tracer-aided studies to understand source water partitioning in tropical ecosystems are limited. Here we report dry season source water partitioning in five unique ecosystems distributed across Costa Rica in altitudinal (<150-3,400 m asl) and latitudinal (Caribbean and Pacific slopes) gradients: evergreen and seasonal rainforests, cloud forest, Pár...
Tropical peatlands are distributed mainly in coastal lowlands; however high elevation regions exhibit a large prevalence of small and fragmented peatlands that are mostly understudied. Artificial drainage of peatlands to expand the area of cattle farming, horticulture, and urbanization is increasing carbon losses to the atmosphere and streams world...
El agua media o protagoniza muchas de las contribuciones de la naturaleza a los seres humanos. Este artículo explora y ejemplifica la representación espacial de la oferta y la demanda de servicios ecosistémicos relacionados con el agua y su aplicación a distintas necesidades de la gestión y la política ambiental, con particular foco en la Argentina...
Los ecosistemas ofrecen servicios hídricos claves a la población, como la provisión de agua potable y la depuración de efluentes. Los estudios de servicios hídricos suelen realizarse a escala de cuenca, enfocados desde la oferta. Sin embargo, este enfoque ignora relaciones hídricas complejas entre las ciudades y el territorio causadas por la transf...
Los ecosistemas acuáticos continentales (EAC) constituyen elementos de gran valor natural, social y cultural. Además, son sumideros naturales de distintos procesos que involucran la interfase agua-tierraatmósfera y, por lo tanto, los primeros a nivel territorial en mostrar síntomas de deterioro ambiental. En este artículo analizamos el enfoque de l...
Grasslands are valued by their capacity to store carbon (C) as well as by their livestock production. However, focussing grassland management on one of these characteristics might negatively affect the other. Here, we describe for the first time the amount of C stored in the plant and soil compartments of extensively grazed highland grasslands of c...
Tropical regions cover approximately 36% of the Earth’s landmass. These regions are home to 40% of the world’s population, which is projected to increase to over 50% by 2030 under a remarkable climate variability scenario often exacerbated by El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and other climate teleconnections. In the tropics, ecohydrological cond...
Wildfires are recurrent in seasonally-dry ecosystems; however, their effects on streamflows at the end of the dry season (low flows) are not well understood. The infiltration-evapotranspiration trade-off hypothesis postulates that when vegetation cover is lost or degraded, low flows in the following dry season are reduced due to impaired water infi...
The data presented here comprises the stable isotopic composition (δ2H and δ18O) of 1659 samples of precipitation, rivers, groundwater and lakes/ponds samples from a total of 511 sites. This is a composite dataset that includes data from the Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) and Rivers (GNIR) databases (IAEA/WMO 2019), data extract...
Developing a land sharing strategy requires a thorough understanding of what is the maximum productivity that can be achieved without altering key ecosystem processes. In the central Argentina highlands, Polylepis australis dominates the few remaining patches of forests and its evergreen trees are highly selected by domestic livestock. Grazing excl...
Aim
Existing global models to predict standing biomass are based on trees characterized by a single principal stem, well developed in height. However, their use in open woodlands and shrublands, characterized by multistemmed species with substantial crown development, generates a high level of uncertainty in biomass estimates. This limitation led u...
In response to increasing pressures on water resources, watershed-services management programs are implemented throughout the tropics. These programs aim to promote land management activities that enhance the quantity and quality of water available to local communities. The success of these programs hinges on our ability to i) understand the impact...
Tropical ecosystems offer a unique setting for understanding ecohydrological processes, but to date such investigations have been limited. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of studying these processes—specifically, how they are being affected by the transformative changes taking place in the tropics—and to offer an agenda for...
Soil water storage capacity and flow regulation relies mostly upon infiltration rate and soil depth.
Disturbs such as grazing and fire strongly modulate the vegetation-soil system, and are capable of altering
the infiltration rate and soil depth, as well. In mountain seasonal ecosystems, this impacts on soil capacity to
slowly release water into st...
La capacidad del suelo de almacenar y regular el flujo de agua depende en gran medida de su su tasa de infiltración y profundidad. Los disturbios como el pastoreo y el fuego son moduladores fuertes del sistema vegetación-suelo, ya que son capaces de alterar la tasa de infiltración y la profundidad del suelo. En sistemas montanos estacionales, esto...
Recent studies using water isotopes have shown that trees and streams appear to return distinct water pools to the hydrosphere. Cryogenically extracted plant and soil water isotopic signatures diverge from the Meteoric Water Lines (MWL), suggesting that plants would preferentially use bound soil water; while mobile soil water that infiltrates the s...
Livestock grazing represents an important human disturbance for vegetation worldwide. We analysed the intraspecific differences in mean trait values between different grazing regimes (ungrazed and grazed) and explored whether these differences are consistent across species in a sub-humid mountain ecosystem in Central Argentina. We selected 14 speci...
Most studies focused on understanding habitat invasibility use the current levels of invasion as a direct proxy of habitat invasibility. This has shown to be biased by the influence of propagule pressure and climate. We suggest that plant growth forms need to be considered as an extra factor, as habitat preferences might not be equal for all potent...
The rivers which provide water to over two million people are born in the highlands of central Argentina, above 1900 m a.s.l. Disturbances caused by livestock and fire regimes, mostly anthropogenic, are important modulators of the vegetation cover and soil integrity. The aim of the present study was to analyze water dynamics in highland ecosystems...
Recent studies using water stable isotopes (δ2H and δ18O) have described an ecohydrological separation of water in soils: a mobile water compartment (groundwater and streams) and a less mobile or static water compartment (used by plants); known as the “two water worlds hypothesis”. In this study, we used a dual isotope approach (δ2H and δ18O) to te...
Several studies attempted to find quick and easy methods to assess litter decomposability. We tested three frequently used methods on 6 Mediterranean herbaceous species from different plant families and life forms: (1) ‘green leaves traits’: traits of living leaves related to the strategies of living plants; (2) ‘litter traits’: litter respiration...
Descomposición y calidad físico-química foliar de 24 especies dominantes de los pastizales de altura de las sierras de Córdoba, Argentina: Tanto la calidad química de la broza como las características físicas de las hojas verdes han sido indicadas como determinantes de la descomposición de la broza. El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la relac...
Litters' chemical and green leaves' physical quality have been indicated as determinants of litter decomposition. The objective of this work was to analyze the relationship between litter decomposition and chemical quality and green leaves physical quality of 24 dominant species of mesic and humid highland grasslands, Córdoba, Argentina. In additio...
Tanto la calidad química de la broza como las características físicas de las hojas verdes han sido indicadas como determinantes de la descomposición de la broza. El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar la relación entre la descomposición, la calidad química de la broza y la calidad física de las hojas verdes de 24 especies dominantes de pastizales...
Las comunidades del intermareal rocoso son sensibles tanto a cambios de las condiciones naturales como a los causados por la actividad humana, siendo escasos los estudios a ese nivel en las costas argentinas. El trabajo se llevo a cabo en dos y tres comunidades intermareales de la localidad de Las Grutas (40º 49’ S, 65º 05’ O) en los años 2007 y 20...
El presente estudio se llevó a cabo en la zona del intermareal de La Rinconada en la localidad de Las Grutas (65º 05 O; 40º 48 S) ubicada en el Golfo San Matías (Río Negro, Argentina) (Fig. 1). El sitio presenta un ciclo de marea semidiurno, por lo que el muestreo se realizó durante la máxima bajamar del mes de noviembre de 2008. Se muestrearon 8 p...
El presente estudio se llevó a cabo en la zona del intermareal de La Rinconada en la localidad de Las Grutas (65º 05 O; 40º 48 S) ubicada en el Golfo San Matías (Río Negro, Argentina) (Fig. 1). El sitio presenta un ciclo de marea semidiurno, por lo que el muestreo se realizó durante la máxima bajamar del mes de noviembre de 2008. Se muestrearon 8 p...
