Pampean region
The Pampas region is a geographical area located in the center of Argentina, according to the administrative division offered by INDEC. It is made up of the following jurisdictions: the provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, La Pampa, Córdoba, the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA); it limits in the North with the provinces of Corrientes, Chaco and Santiago del Estero; towards the West with those of Catamarca, La Rioja, San Luis and Mendoza; towards the South with the province of Neuquén and Río Negro; and to the East with the Atlantic Ocean and Uruguay. Its location, considered privileged and strategic, makes the region the central nucleus of the country, both politically and economically and demographically.
It has an extension of 1,200,000 square kilometers and is mostly a wide prairie —with northern sectors of savannah and southern ones of steppe—; The southeastern part (from the center of the province of Córdoba to the Atlantic Ocean), due to the temperate climate and relatively high humidity, is only periodically interrupted by droughts derived from El Niño and La Niña, which are then usually compensated by floods, that is, floods make much of eastern Pampasia grassland. In its southern sector it presents old paleoclimatic dunes, and shows a slightly stepped relief towards the west. In Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul, it presents a more undulating landscape with mountain ranges with a height of just over 500 meters above sea level. no. m.. It is one of the most fertile regions of the world.
The ombú, native to the Paraná jungle, was once found solitary in the Pampean plain without forming a forest, being the only interruption of a monotonous landscape of herbs 2-3 m high for hundreds of kilometers of extension. A traveler can cross almost 800 km between the cities of Buenos Aires and Córdoba, and will observe that the relief moves in soft hills, with the horizon in a smooth sinuation, not to say that it seems almost completely straight for hundreds of kilometers, with the interruptions logics of an undulating terrain. While to the southwest he will see no difference to that horizontality for hundreds of meters.
Toponymy
The term pampa comes from southern Quechua and means 'plain,' especially 'plain between mountains. It was the Spaniards who descended in the XVI century from the Andean region, especially through the Humahuaca ravine from Potosí, who referred as the pampas to those large plains without significant forests that exist in central Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil.
By metonymy, the Spaniards called the pampas the native peoples who lived there, especially the het ('old' pampas), the northern Patagonian Tehuelche called Guanaqueen, and the Querandí.
The Pampas region is an extensive plain located to the east of the Argentine Republic, between 31° and 39° south latitude. Within this region it is possible to draw a clear separation between the so-called "Humid Pampa" or "Eastern Pampas" and the "Dry Pampa" or "Pampa Occidental" (Politos 1984). This division would be marked by the 600 mm isohyet. Thus, the Pampa Húmeda subregion is limited to the west by the aforementioned isohyet, while its eastern limits are marked by the Paraná River, the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean (Figure I.1).
Geomorphology
The Pampas region has a vast and continuous plain. This continuity is only interrupted by two mountain systems in the southeast of the region:
- Sierras de Tandilia: extends from Mar del Plata to the Las Flores stream. The highest height, 524 m. n. m., is located in the hill La Juanita.
- Sierras de Ventania: extends from the city of Puan to Indio Rico in the match of Colonel Pringles. Its highest height, 1239 m, is located on Mount Three Picos.
The plain alternates almost completely flat areas with slightly undulating ones. It is based on loess deposits from 300 to 5,000 meters deep that accumulated over about 5 million years, from the beginning of the Pliocene to the Holocene. Crystalline rock lies beneath these deposits and only emerges in mountain systems. mentioned or in the so-called Sierras Pampeanas, in the province of Córdoba, which are outside the region. Throughout the region there are permanent and temporary lagoons of various sizes. Most are due to the poor drainage network associated with the low regional slope and flat topography.
Climate
The climate of this region is a variation of the humid subtropical, also called temperate, characterized by the fact that the hottest season is also the rainiest. It has warm summers and cool and variable winters, with frequent frosts but no snowfall; the average annual temperature is 17 degrees.
The amount of precipitation forms a division between the humid pampas and the dry pampas. The humid pampa receives an average of 1,000 mm of precipitation per year and is favored by the winds from the Atlantic Ocean. In the dry pampa, located to the west of the region, there is only an average of 400 mm of precipitation per year on a sandy soil.
The characteristic winds of the Pampas region are the Pampero and the Sudestada. The first comes from an Antarctic anticyclone, so it is a very cold and dry wind, it blows from the south or southwest of the country to our region; It has a speed of 100 km/h and causes rain, a drop in temperature, large clouds of dust, and sometimes snowfall.
The southeast is a meteorological phenomenon of cold winds from the south, which saturates the polar air masses with humidity. If the wind continues for several days and other natural issues arise, the level of the Río de la Plata increases and makes it difficult for smaller rivers to drain. This wind produces floods and dangerous situations in nautical sports.
A recurring phenomenon in the region are tornadoes and severe storms, with a greater frequency between October and March. They are usually accompanied by hail and winds.
Biome
The natural biome of the Pampean region is grassland. Within this biome, the dominant vegetation type is grassland, followed by steppe. From the phytogeographical point of view, it belongs to the Pampas phytogeographical province. Much of the region was profoundly modified by agricultural and livestock production.
During the ten millennia of vegetation of the Pampas grassland, clay-sized phytoliths were generated, in 20 % of the total clay fraction.
To the east, the Pampas plain presents a temperate climate and a grassland biome, while to the west, there is an arid strip with a semi-desert biome.
Population
As already indicated, probably since the end of the Pleistocene or at least 8000 years ago, the area was populated by Pampid peoples (the Patagonians are included among the Pampids). These early settlers had a body adapted to hunting and gathering in steppe, grassland, and park areas: long legs (which practically equals tall stature and stocky build) as this allowed them to run long distances faster and almost literally hunt by running. their prey (pampas deer, guanacos, rheas, and initially the extinct Pleistocene megafauna).
When the Spanish arrived in 1520, the aboriginal population of the region was very scarce since their way of life depended on hunting, fishing and gathering (there are almost no traces, not of agriculture, but even of horticulture). The largest pre-Hispanic human concentrations (that is, prior to 1520) were on the banks of the rivers of the La Plata basin. This caused an antagonistic situation during the Spanish conquest: on the one hand, the pre-Hispanic native peoples, being relatively few in number, seemed easy prey for the new invaders, but the lack of hierarchical native states or the need to be attached to cultivated lands (for transportation of the time) and the enormous extensions of the Pampas, plus the quick perception of the Europeans (especially after the fantasies of Los Césares and La Trapalanda faded) of the absence of great wealth in precious minerals made the Spaniards despise the territory except the strip or communications route that went from the Río de la Plata, passed through the city of Córdoba and entered Tucumán.
This meant that, since the XVIII century, Europeans (Italians, Spaniards and others who were less with them –Portuguese, French, German, etc.–) populated certain nodal points on the banks of the Paraná River. (that is: the cities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario, etc.), however, a few leagues "inland" almost until the end of the 19th century, the territory was considered by Europeans a "desert" in which they lived with great low population density various aboriginal tribes often at war. Meanwhile, in the Pampas region, since the 16th century, huge herds of cattle, horses, and sheep from Europe had prospered.
The industrial revolution arrived quite late in the Pampas region, however when it did it caused a radical change: the system of dry farms enabled areas previously considered "desert" for a large intensive European-type agriculture, the railways and the steamers (even more so when Charles Tellier invented the refrigerated ship at the end of the 19th century) made it possible to easily include the Pampas region within a great global economic circuit (the Pampas region then appeared as a major producer of leather -which was the main part of the clothing, European footwear and harnesses as well as the transmission belts of European machines-, of sheep wool and later of cereals such as wheat and corn, then becoming a granary of the world), for the new modes of production the massive immigration of European peasants; although the initial aspirations were quite racist: it was intended to populate the region with "Anglo-Saxons" or "at least" with French (these populations were considered by the pseudoscientific "social Darwinism" as the most evolved "races" in the world between almost 1850 and the 1950s), however the massive European immigration came from the southern areas of Europe, for example from the most overpopulated areas of Italy and Spain. It is this massive European immigration that knew how to learn elements of the gaucho culture that has populated the Pampas region in a more intensive and economically productive way, where even in the 19th century XXI latifundios («estancias», almost always with absentee owners), smallholdings and highly productive smallholdings owned by Argentine farmers of European origins alternate. The ranchers constituted the SRA after the so-called Conquest of the Desert, while the intermediate sectors have solidified to be part of the CRA and the chacareros have generally constituted the Argentine Agrarian Federation and/or CONINAGRO.
The last National Population and Housing Census, carried out in October 2010, showed that 66.2% of the inhabitants of Argentina were located in the Pampas region (consisting of the city of Buenos Aires and the provinces of Buenos Aires). Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Entre Ríos and La Pampa).
Subregions
Based on physiognomic, geological, and vegetation studies, Rolando León distinguished five subregions —interior, southern, Mesopotamian, undulating, and floodplain pampas— that, together with the southern and northern fields in Uruguay and Brazil, form the region of the grasslands of the Río de La Plata.
Inland Pampa
This subregion comprises the west of the Province of Buenos Aires, north and east of the Province of La Pampa, south of Córdoba and southeast of San Luis. Due to its internal characteristics it can be divided into two large units: the "flat", to the east and "west" (León). There are climatic limitations for very severe agricultural practices in the west, with very low levels of precipitation to carry out rainfed agriculture, thus the current use is based on extensive grazing on natural or semi-natural fields. In the east, the most favorable conditions for agriculture are on the hills or in the high plains (INTA-SAGyP 1990). The suitability of the lands is agricultural-livestock and livestock-agricultural in similar proportions, depending on whether they are high and stable landscapes or dune-covered or low-lying areas (INTA-SAGyP 1990).
Physical characteristics
The landscape in the region is very flat (the almost 800 km that separate the cities of Córdoba and Buenos Aires are such a flat plain that the horizon appears as an almost perfect straight line), however in the vicinity of the large rivers it becomes slightly undulating, and has produced a poorly defined drainage network, with large arreic basins characterized by the presence of permanent or temporary lagoons, with large areas affected by salinization, especially in the east, where rainfall is higher. Regarding the edaphic characteristics, the texture decreases markedly from west to east. In the province of San Luis, the soils present excessive drainage, low moisture retention capacity and high susceptibility to wind erosion. The soils of the upper parts show little differentiation of horizons, they are deep, neutral and weakly structured (INTA-SAGyP 1990). In the lowlands, which are well defined, soil complexes affected by hydromorphism, salinity and subsurface sodicity are identified.
The humid pampas (that is, most of the province of Buenos Aires, the southern 2/3 of Santa Fe, the western and southern 3/4 of Córdoba and the eastern quarter of La Pampa) has deep and rich soils abundant in humus (predominantly loess-like soil) which favors –thanks to a rainfall of more than 500 mm/year–) the natural existence of important grassy pastures or directly prairies; although currently (if the area is not cultivated) grasslands (the "montes" or forests of carob trees, piquillines and caldenes) are usually perceived or have been felled or have been greatly reduced and devastated. According to Patricio H. Randle et al. al., before the arrival of the large European herds (around 1537) most of the Pampean coverage was a steppe of high and hard grasslands.
In the western Pampas region (high pampas and dry pampas) the grassland cover is sparse, covering approximately 60% to 80% of the surface of the soil, with communities dominated, on the border between the provinces of Buenos Aires and La Pampa, by species of the genera Stipa, Piptochaetium and Poa and isolated shrubs (INTA-UNLP 1980, León 1991). In the west of the Province of Buenos Aires and the east of La Pampa, the heterogeneity of the soils results in an irregular distribution of crop lots (Baldi et al. 2006). In the province of San Luis, the original grassland vegetation is currently invaded by the chañar tree (Geoffroea decorticans), mainly in the eastern zone, where agricultural activities predominate (León 1991, INTA 1998). The existing natural grasslands have suffered a degradation process in the last 100 years due to overgrazing throughout the district. However, in this region there are relicts of Sorghastrum pellitum, commonly called red or cow grass, an emblematic species of semiarid grasslands (INTA-UNLP 1980, INTA 1998). It is worth noting the presence in the west of the district of caldenes patches with different degrees of isolation (INTA-UNLP 1980, INTA 1998).
Southern Pampa
This subregion comprises the central-central south, the south and the southwest of the province of Buenos Aires, and is characterized by important agricultural, livestock and industrial activities. Agriculture has a predominance of winter crops, especially wheat (Giagante de Vercesi 1978; INTA-SAGyP 1990). The fully cattle-raising areas are found where the soils present problems of hydromorphism and alkalinity (INTA-SAGyP 1990). Vegetation in pristine areas is dominated by species of the genus Stipa, similar to what occurs in the Rolling Pampas and in the Interior (León 1991). The vegetation of the rocky sites and hills of Tandilia and Ventania constitute, according to some authors, a phytogeographic district per se (Parodi 1947).
Physical characteristics
It includes flat and high landscapes, others gently undulating and the mountainous systems of Tandilia and Ventania. Well-drained hills predominate in the district; It is possible to find areas of reduced extension between the hills where water accumulates for considerable periods. The soils are characterized by having favorable textural and structural properties for agriculture. These are provided with organic matter and mineral nutrients, and have no other limitation than the presence in certain sectors of coarse subsurface.
Mesopotamian Pampas
The combination of soil characteristics and geographical position made this subregion an agricultural pole of the country since the end of the XIX century (van der Sluijs 1971, Cammarata 1978). The main economic activities in the region are annual (wheat, corn, rice, sunflower) and perennial (fruit) crops in the east, and livestock in the center-west. In the 1990s, the area dedicated to forestry activity (pines and eucalyptus) presented a significant change, mainly due to the promulgation of Law No. 25,080, on investments in cultivated forests, and provincial laws, such as Law No. 3,190 from the province of Corrientes, aimed at generating a strategy to attract investment. The forested area in this region came mainly from areas traditionally used for cattle raising (Sarli 2004, Paruelo et al. 2005, Jobbágy et al. 2006).
Physical characteristics
This district is located on a plain made up of loessic sediments, with slightly undulating relief. The soils are moderately deep, with a good organic matter content, loamy to silt-loam textures in the west and clay-loam in the east, with the consequent reduction in infiltration levels. The drainage network is well developed, with numerous exorheic watercourses (Van der Sluijs 1971).
The vegetation is characterized by a mosaic of dominant herbaceous formations in the elevated portions of the hills, which alternates with gallery forests on the margins of the fluvial courses (Cabrera 1971). The most represented herbaceous community is the “flechilla” meadow, which constitutes an almost continuous tapestry of vegetation in the elevated sectors (Cabrera 1971). An element of differentiation of this district in relation to the other Pampas is the presence of genera of tropical grasses such as Axonopus, Paspalum, among others (León 1991).
Wavy Pampas
It borders to the east with the coasts of the province of Buenos Aires; to the south and west with the Salado River; and to the north with the Carcarañá river, in the province of Santa Fe. It is characterized by being the most industrialized subregion (the metal-mechanic and textile industries predominate) and populated, due to its proximity to the ports, the availability of energy and water, which has a consumer market, there is a large workforce, excellent soil and climatic conditions.
The modification of the original vegetation cover –product of productive activities– is almost complete. The soil and climatic conditions allow the development of two crops in the same growing season, giving this subregion an eminently agricultural character. The areas used for livestock are found adjacent to watercourses and in concave floodable areas. With the intense pressure that agriculture and cattle ranching have exerted on the native vegetation, there have been great changes in the soil cover, as well as in the structure and composition of the remnants of grasslands.
Physical characteristics
The elevation of the basement caused the Paraná and La Plata rivers to erode its bed. In general, its relief is slightly undulating and is drained by streams and well-defined watercourses. The soils are mostly deep and well drained, with a loamy-silty texture. In the ravines that cut the hills and in some basins, washed soils appear, somewhat hydromorphic and sodic in the superficial horizons.
The vegetation structure of the grasslands would correspond to a prairie in wet years and a pseudo-steppe in dry periods. In areas where the soils are very fertile (the great part of this district) the so-called “flechillar” would develop, characterized by grasses of the genus Stipa. Where soils are slightly alkaline, such as small springs where streams originate or on their edges, halophilous communities can be found. Due to the restrictions that these areas present, their use as farmland is very limited.
Depressed or floodable pampa
It extends to the west of the undulating pampas, in the Salado River basin. Floods are frequent since there are no drainage slopes, also due to the dunes in the Bay of Samborombón, the evacuation of water is even more complicated.
Physical characteristics
In general, it is an extremely flat plain that includes most of the Salado basin and a large area, topographically higher, limited by the foothills of the Tandilia and Ventania systems. The most notable feature is its meager slope and acute problems of surface water runoff. The wind has been the main modeler in this district, thus numerous deflation basins have been formed that currently constitute closed basins occupied by lagoons or permanent or temporary swamps. The original materials of the soils were washed by water action, so silt and clay predominate, also contributing calcium ions in solution that contributed to the formation of rough plates. The limitations for agriculture throughout the subregion are determined mainly due to the floodability and the problems of alkalinity and superficial or subsurface sodicity.
The most common vegetation on these soils is a low grassy steppe, with a sparse cover, dominated by a Poaceae of the genus Distichlis.
Of all the pampas, the floodplain is the one that presents a lower degree of replacement of the original grassland system, although grazing has modified the floristic composition and the structure of the vegetation. The aforementioned edaphic limitations condition the activities activities that are carried out in this sector, determining that the dominant activity is livestock farming, and only in isolated hills is it possible to practice agriculture
Wildlife
Humans caused great changes by introducing agriculture, livestock, and forestry. For this reason, species such as the puma, ñandú, deer of the pampas, etc. They were disappearing to be found in their natural habitat in very few places.
Smaller species than those previously mentioned, have adapted to the transformations generated by man, so that in rural areas you can see mammals such as the overa weasel, the guinea pig, the pampas fox, the hairy; birds such as the melancholic tyrant, the coot, the martinet, several passerines (among them: the yellow goldfinch, the red-crested cardinal, the thrush, etc.); reptiles (such as the overo lizard).
You can also find foreign species that have been introduced by humans such as the European hare, wild boar and house sparrow.
Seismic activity
The Pampas region is one of the most geologically stable areas on planet Earth, since some minor peripheral and almost inactive faults of the shields of Brasilia and Patagonia hardly cause friction, and weakly, very moderately, the aftershocks of the frictions of the Nazca plate before the South American plate (in the Pampean region such frictions hardly come as slight tremors in the space of decades). In other words, earthquakes in the Pampas region are infrequent, and only attract attention due to their unusual nature.
Since there has been news (centuries ago), no victims of earthquakes or earthquakes have been known in the Pampas region.
An earthquake in 1888 was perceived as something very strange:
On June 5, 1888, at 3:20 a.m., the slight earthquake of the Río de la Plata of 1888 occurred, with a magnitude on the Richter scale of 5.5; Its epicenter was at 34°36′0″S 57°53′59″W / -34.60000, -57.89972, at a depth of 30 km.
It slightly affected, without causing casualties, all the towns on the Río de la Plata coast, especially the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. It produced slight damage, since in these cities there were still no tall buildings, nor subway trains. Even so, after this earthquake, neither of the two capitals have taken anti-seismic measures in their buildings.
Economy
The Pampean area presents the best pastures for raising cattle, from which meat and milk are obtained for the large cities and for export.
Agriculture
Historically, this area has produced cereals such as corn and wheat, basically for export. This was possible due to its excellent agricultural soils, temperate climate and availability of water. In recent times, new techniques and capital investment have boosted these advantages, and efforts have focused on soybean production. The Argentine agricultural increase has several causes, among them diversification, that is, the variation of crops that allows a better use of the soil. Technological innovations include direct sowing (without plowing), the development of fast-growing hybrid and transgenic plants or more resistant to pests.
The main crops in the Pampean zone are: wheat, corn, barley, sunflower, soybean, potato, peanut and sorghum.
- Soybean: from its seeds you get a variety of food products: oil, sauce, vegetable juice, buds, animal food, flour, porotos, tofu or soy cheese. As a secondary use of soy, plastics, adhesives, paints, stains, insecticides and pharmaceuticals are produced. It was first planted in 1970. In 1971-1972 80 000 ha planted. In the 2001-2002 campaign, soy moved to traditional crops. 11 640 000 ha.
Between 1999/2000 the production of cereals and oilseeds exceeded 50 million tons.
Livestock
Since colonial times, cattle, horse, sheep and pig farming has been the fundamental economic activity. This geographical area is the main one in the breeding of cattle for meat and milk.
- Fleeces for meat: the Charolais, Hereford and Aberdeen Angus races fall into this category.
- Milk cows: formed by the race Hindo-Argentina.
The most important dairy basin in the country is located in the province of Santa Fe. It is followed by the basins of Córdoba, Province of Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Province of La Pampa. Cattle in this region are of the highest quality, since they are raised in the field, that is, the animals feed directly on grass; this is possible due to the large extensions of land, the soft grass, the temperate climate. Argentine cattle are free of foot-and-mouth disease and other diseases, which is why they fit in very well in European markets. There are 3 specification zones, with the aim of improving productivity: breeding, fattening and mixed.
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