Freshwaters and Wetlands of Patagonia - Ecosystems and Socioecological Aspects

The Freshwaters of Patagonia adopts a socioecological approach, in which experts from across Patagonia review recent, scientifically rigorous literature and data of their own, thus synthesizing the current knowledge directly relevant to understand the present state and future trends of icefields, freshwater and wetland ecosystems in this region.
The book's organization into three parts provides a studied and comprehensive view on the patterns and processes of the various ecosystems in Patagonia, and describes the sociological aspects of freshwater ecosystems, as well as characterizes the conservation of the freshwater and wetland ecosystems, in Patagonia. The chapters offer a broad, state-of-the-art overview of the current status of glaciers, freshwater and wetland ecosystems of this region, as well as studies of both local and large scale biodiversity patterns, and study cases of extreme and naturally polluted environments.The volume concludes with the current status of Patagonian freshwaters, and discusses the scientific, legal and administrative tools aimed at their sustainable management within the framework of the UNEP Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda. A broad audience of students, scientists, engineers, environmental managers, and policy makers will be interested in this volume.

Dr. Gabriela Mataloni, PhD is a Principal Researcher at the CONICET and former Associate Professor at the National University of San Martín (UNSAM), currently working at the Institute for Environmental Research and Engineering (IIIA CONICET-UNSAM). She completed her graduate and PhD studies at the University of Buenos Aires, where she pursued investigations on limnology as well as taxonomy and ecology of microalgae. These pertained mainly to Tierra del Fuego peat bogs, and freshwater and terrestrial environments from Antarctica. She conducted fieldwork in Antarctica over 11 summer seasons, establishing several international collaborations, and stayed at the British Antarctic Survey with a Fundación Antorchas-British Council fellowship. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. Her present research interests focus on environmental issues involving wetlands and freshwater ecosystems, mainly in Patagonia and Antarctica. She was a member of the Advisory Committee on Biodiversity and Sustainability of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina. She is currently Associate Editor of the Polar Biology journal.
Dr. Rubén D. Quintana, PhD is a Principal Researcher at the CONICET and Associate Professor at the National University of San Martín (UNSAM). At present, he is Regular Director of the Institute for Environmental Research and Engineering (IIIA, CONICET-UNSAM). He completed his graduate and PhD studies at the University of Buenos Aires. He carried out postdoctoral studies at the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, USA and at the Headquarters for the Study of Mediterranean Wetlands, University of Valencia, Spain. His research expertise is the ecology of wetlands, focusing in the effects of land use change on fluvial wetlands. He also has carried out investigations on biodiversity and landscape and regional ecology in different eco-regions of Argentina including Patagonian and Antarctic ecosystems. In addition, he is part of the team involved in the wetland inventory of Argentina. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, books and book chapters. He has collaborated with the International Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Irán, 1971) and he was Scientific Coordinator of the advisory committee on Biodiversity and sustainability of Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina. To date, he is member of the National Committee of Ethics in Science and Technology, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Argentina, and President of Foundation for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Wetlands /Wetlands International