General presentation
The ongoing occurrence of land use and climate change leads to increased soil erosion worldwide, affecting ecosystem services and human well-being. Land and water degradation resulting from these changes are particularly rapid and severe in many regions of South America where natural ecosystems are being rapidly replaced with intensive cropland and forest plantations. While the worlds’ attention is being directed towards the situation occurring in emblematic ecosystems such as the Amazon, CELESTE Lab will investigate the degradation of soil and water resources in the relatively understudied Southern Cone region (Southern Brazil, Uruguay, Northern Argentina) where intensive crops and plantations are being installed at the expense of the biodiversity-rich Pampa and Atlantic Forest Biomes despite a limited attention of both the general public and the scientific community. Based on a network of catchments monitored by the Brazilian and Uruguayan partners, a unique panel of techniques (field monitoring, sediment multi-proxy dating, and tracing, computer modelling) will be deployed and combined to quantify spatial and temporal variations of water/sediment/contaminant fluxes in rivers draining these unique ecosystems. The main objectives of CELESTE Lab will be to advance these techniques at the best worldwide level, to train the next generation of young researchers and to design effective landscape management solutions through interactions with stakeholders.
Some field pictures
