Pampean Lakes

This book is for advanced students, researchers and professionals from earth and environmental sciences. The Argentinean Pampa plain is an extensive region of ca 673,000 km2 between 30°S and 38°S in South America. The region encompasses a large number of lakes (>50,000) of highly variable sizes. Pampean lakes have been very sensitive to past and recent climatic change. Thus, paleolimnological research across the Pampas provides unique insights into regional environmental variability since the Late Pleistocene up to the most recent hydroclimatic changes. These lakes are sensors of both the documented increase in precipitation that occurred after the seventies as well as substantial changes in land use.It compiles the most outstanding information of the region for the last 30 years regarding ecological aspects, changes in land-use processes and their impact on water bodies, paleolimnological reconstructions, archeology, hydroclimatic variability and associated human dimension. This knowledge provides tools to assess environmental parameters that are fundamental to develop integrated water management projects of major societal impact.