Event Details

Dr Esteban Jobbágy of Universidad Nacional de San Luis & CONICET (National Research Council), Argentina illustrates how current agricultural changes in the South American Pampas and Chaco are altering water and salt fluxes, including highlighting the role of technological changes & human behaviour.

Flat sedimentary regions host some of the largest global breadbaskets and most active hotspots of land use and management changes. The strong coupling between ecosystems and groundwater in these regions is highly sensitive to these transformations and the source of environmental challenges like raising floods and expanding salinization. I will illustrate how current agricultural changes in the Pampas and Chaco (soybean displacing pastures and forests, respectively) are altering water and salt fluxes. The role of technological changes and human behaviour shaping regional hydrology and opening possibilities for its steering will be highlighted.

Dr Esteban Jobbágy is an Agronomist and Ecologist at the National University of San Luis and Principal Researcher of CONICET. He leads a team of 20 researchers exploring water cycling, land use changes and crop production in Southern South America and globally. His research involves the use of remote sensing, stable isotopes, crop and hydrological models together with multiple field sampling approaches. This work involves hands-on collaboration with multiple commercial, research, government and farming organisations. Current activities include: Selection of drought tolerance crop trial sites for Bayer; global matching climate location software with Monsanto; water impact assessment of forestry production in Uruguay for United Paper Mills and groundwater-crop monitoring and planning logistics with LIAG.

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