Cambios en la partición de flujos de agua en el Chaco Árido al reemplazar bosques por pasturas

Patricio N. Magliano; Roberto J. Fernández; Raúl Giménez; Victoria A. Marchesini; Ricardo A. Páez; Esteban G. Jobbágy

doi:10.25260/EA.16.26.2.0.148

Autores/as

Patricio N. Magliano Grupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis-CONICET, Argentina.
Roberto J. Fernández Cátedra de Ecología e IFEVA, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires-CONICET, Argentina.
Raúl Giménez Grupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis-CONICET, Argentina.
Victoria A. Marchesini Grupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis-CONICET, Argentina. School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, Australia.
Ricardo A. Páez Grupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis-CONICET, Argentina.
Esteban G. Jobbágy Grupo de Estudios Ambientales-IMASL, Universidad Nacional de San Luis-CONICET, Argentina.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.16.26.2.0.148

Resumen

La vegetación cumple un papel muy importante regulando los flujos de agua de los ecosistemas, en especial en regiones áridas y semiáridas donde la mayor parte de la precipitación se evapotranspira. En este trabajo se exploró cómo el reemplazo de los bosques secos nativos por pasturas, orientado a aumentar la productividad ganadera, afecta la partición de flujos de agua en las llanuras del Chaco Árido. Se caracterizó la distribución del tamaño y la intensidad de eventos de precipitación, y se midieron los flujos de intercepción directa, escurrimiento superficial, drenaje profundo y evaporación potencial en parcelas pareadas de bosques y pasturas en San Luis, Argentina. Las pasturas presentaron menor intercepción directa (0.35±0.13 vs. 1.51±0.50 mm/evento de precipitación), mayor escurrimiento superficial (~28 vs. 0% de escurrimiento en eventos grandes e intensos) y mayor evaporación potencial a nivel del suelo (7.0±0.9 vs. 4.4±0.9 mm/día en el verano). El drenaje profundo resultó nulo en ambas coberturas, aunque bajo las pasturas se encontró un desplazamiento vertical de las sales del perfil hasta los 2 m de profundidad. Luego de cada evento de precipitación, las pasturas presentaron una distribución más homogénea de la humedad edáfica como producto de una menor redistribución de agua por el canopeo y la superficie del terreno. Estos resultados sugieren que el establecimiento de pasturas en sitios originalmente cubiertos por bosques reduciría la fracción de la precipitación potencialmente transpirable y aumentaría el riesgo potencial de erosión hídrica. La importancia de los flujos de redistribución sobre el balance hídrico y el funcionamiento ecohidrológico del sistema resalta la necesidad de caracterizar la dinámica del agua a escala de parche en paisajes llanos.

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