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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1357904
This article is part of the Research Topic Transforming Food Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: Increasing Sustainability, Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change View all 10 articles

Designing multifunctional forest systems in Northern Patagonia, Argentina

Provisionally accepted
Lucas A. Garibaldi Lucas A. Garibaldi 1*Paula Zermoglio Paula Zermoglio 1Juan Agüero Juan Agüero 2Marcos Nacif Marcos Nacif 1Matías Goldenberg Matías Goldenberg 1Facundo Fioroni Facundo Fioroni 1Mariano Amoroso Mariano Amoroso 1Alejandro G. Aparicio Alejandro G. Aparicio 3Romina Di Marco Romina Di Marco 4Margarita Fernandez Margarita Fernandez 5Natalia Verónica Fernández Natalia Verónica Fernández 6Micaela Gambino Micaela Gambino 1Santiago Naón Santiago Naón 1Martin Nunez Martin Nunez 4Facundo Oddi Facundo Oddi 1Mario J. Pastorino Mario J. Pastorino 3Javier Puntieri Javier Puntieri 1
  • 1 National University of Río Negro, Viedma, Argentina
  • 2 University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 3 Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (Argentina), Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 4 University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States
  • 5 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
  • 6 National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Multifunctional productive systems based on native species management, a new paradigm that counters colonial worldviews, offer sustainable sources of food and materials while preserving biodiversity. Despite extensive discussions in herbaceous and agricultural systems, applying this concept to native forests in Northern Patagonia remains unclear. Multifunctional system implementation can be approached from a fractal perspective, with evaluations at the stand level being essential for understanding ecological processes across scales. Here, we exemplify research and management for multiple native species, integrating results from ten years of field experiments on the impacts of biomass harvesting intensity (HI) on nine Nature's Contributions to People (NCPs), including habitat creation, pollination, soil formation, hazard regulation, prevention of invasions, and provision of energy, food, materials, and options. Our findings reveal that some regulating NCPs peak with null HI, while certain material and regulating NCPs maximize at the highest HI. Low to intermediate HI (30-50 %) show a more balanced provision of all NCPs. Our results suggest that some biomass extraction is necessary to enhance most NCPs, emphasizing the importance of balancing material provisioning and biodiversity conservation in management schemes. We propose future directions for designing multifunctional forest systems, advocating for low-density plantation of native tree species with high wood quality within the natural forest matrix. This approach may yield higher NCPs levels over time compared to the current cattle breeding and wood extraction system, with implications beyond Patagonia, considering historical associations of such practices with colonial worldviews globally.

    Keywords: Biodiversity, bioenergy, biomass, Colonial practices, ecosystem services, forest management, Fruit plants, Nature's contributions to people

    Received: 04 Jan 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Garibaldi, Zermoglio, Agüero, Nacif, Goldenberg, Fioroni, Amoroso, Aparicio, Di Marco, Fernandez, Fernández, Gambino, Naón, Nunez, Oddi, Pastorino and Puntieri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lucas A. Garibaldi, National University of Río Negro, Viedma, Argentina

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.