Abstract

BROOKS, Stephen J. et al. Capacity building for freshwater insect studies in northern Patagonia, Argentina: DARWIN Initiative programme. Rev. Soc. Entomol. Argent. [online]. 2009, vol.68, n.1-2, pp.145-154. ISSN 0373-5680.

This project was funded from September 2006 for three years by the British Government's Darwin Initiative programme. The focus of our project is the study of aquatic insects from Nahuel Huapi National Park (NHNP) in Patagonia, Argentina. The park includes a wide range of wetlands, including montane streams, lowland lakes and marshes, distributed within temperate rainforest and arid steppe. The material will be identified and stored in a fully referenced and accessible collection at La Plata Museum and the Natural History Museum, London. Darwin Initiative funding has been used to equip a biodiversity laboratory at National Park Headquarters in Bariloche and also a field station at Puerto Blest. Information on the insect species in NHNP will be entered into a GIS database, together with a vegetation classification and wetland characteristics, to model freshwater insect data spatially and create a biodiversity database, the first of its kind in Patagonia. We hope that the experiences we gain during the project, the insect collections and databases, the publications, and the many other products, will be used to further enhance wetland conservation throughout Argentina and southern South America.

Keywords : Darwin Initiative; Patagonia; Aquatic Insects.

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