Past, present and future of the natural and human communities of the South American dry forest. The case of the Argentine Chaco Seco

Bernat Claramunt López, Carlos A. Gracia Alonso, Héctor Ricardo Grau, Joan Pino Vilalta, Julio Kulemeyer, Liliana Concepción Lupo, Pablo Cristian Paolasso, Raquel Gil Montero, Ricardo Villalba, Santiago Giralt Romeu.

The Chaco Seco is one of the largest extensions of forest in South America and its dynamics have an important climatic and anthropic impact. However, more intense farming and agrofishery activities in the Argentine zone are altering its structure and biodiversity. Also, if the decline in rainfall is confirmed, its wooded area will shrink with the resulting increase in aridity.

This project sets out to gauge the dry forest’s vulnerability to climate change and the upswing in anthropic activities, as well as looking into how deforestation will affect human communities in the area. The results will provide us with short- and long-term predictions for dry forest evolution under differing scenarios of climate conditions and demographic pressure.