Our vision
Agroecosystems provide diverse Ecosystem Services, understood as the contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. Historically, efforts to increase the provision of Ecosystem Services have been mainly oriented to the provision of food, fibers and fuels, to the detriment of other services such as regulation and cultural services. The increase in production has been achieved through the intensification and expansion of agriculture over natural areas, generating as a consequence strong changes in the productive capacities of the soil, loss of biodiversity and change in the disturbance regimes. These changes threaten the sustainability of agroecosystems and their capacity to provide Ecosystem Services.
The study of ecological processes in agroecosystems is necessary to evaluate the environmental costs and benefits of different production models, identify the most relevant functions and the most urgent threats to bring the systems to a state of greater sustainability.
What do we do?
- Assessment and monitoring of land-use change through teledetection and Geographical Information Systems.
- Quantification and mapping of ecosystem functions and services at landscape and regional scale.
- Assesment of ecological interactions relevant for agricultural production.


In this research line we are developing ECOSER, a colaborative protocol for the assessment and mapping of ecosystem services. This protocol was designed as a tool to support decision making in land-use plans.
To access ECOSER website click here.
Current projects

2020-2023. Impact of Chaco deforestation and degradation on biodiversity and ecosystem services: application of optical and radar remote sensing to the design of conservation landscapes.
Funding: FONCYT 2020-1329
Director: Laura Marisa Bellis

VETA: spontaneous vegetation in the transition to agroecology: functional characters, potential ecosystem services and management proposals
Funding: Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
Director: Lorena Herrera y Paula Natinzon

2021-2025. SOILDGUARD -Sustainable soil management to unleash soil biodiversity potential and increase environmental, economic and social wellbeing
Funding: Proyecto Horizonte 2020 financiado por la Unión Europea
Director: Juan Gaitán y Paula Barral

2021-2024. Towards the sustainability of the rural landscapes of Southeast of Buenos Aires: ecosystem services, promotion instruments and social acceptability of the use of service crops and conservation of linear elements.
Funding: FONCYT 2019-2072
Director: Federico Weyland

2020-2022. Dinámica de fracciones de la materia orgánica del suelo en agroecosistemas
Funding: FONCYT 2018-03786
Director: Sebastián Villarino

2019-2020. Aligning social and ecological connectivity for better conservation of grasslands in the Pampa Region of Argentina.
Funding: Neotropical Grassland Conservancy
Director: Lorena Herrera

2020-2023. Design and implementation of a national system for monitoring degradation at different scales, with the goal of neutralizing land degradation
Funding: INTA
Director: Juan Gaitán

2020-2023. Assessment, monitoring and management of biodiversity in agricultural and forestry systems
Funding: INTA
Director: Natalia Fracassi

2019-2022. Riparian environments and their role in the supply of the water purification ecosystem service: development of criteria and tools for the sustainable planning of rural watersheds
Funding: FONCYT PICT 2017-0260
Director: Paula Barral
Past projects

2019-2021. Eco-epidemiological role of domestic and wild canids in the life cycle of Neospora caninum and its spatial association with seroprevalence in cattle in the Mar y Sierras Lechera Basin, Buenos Aires province, Argentina.
Funding: FONCYT 2018-01167
Director: Nathalia Scioscia

2016-2018. Towards multifunctional landscapes: rural tourism as an integrator of ecosystem services of food production, recreation and habitat provision for wildlife
Funding: Fondo Para la Conservación Ambiental (FOCA) - Banco Galicia, FONCYT PICT 2015-0647
Director: Federico Weyland

2013-2019. Assessment, management and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services in productive systems.
Funding: INTA (PE PNNAT 1128053)
Director: Sonia Canavelli

2013-2019. Observatorios de sustentabilidad ambiental.
Funding: INTA Programa Nacional - Recursos Naturales, gestión ambiental y ecorregiones.
Director: Donald Bran

2013-2019. Proyecto Regional con Enfoque Territorial del sudeste del CERBAS.
Funding: INTA
Director: Silvia Maris Rouvier

2013-2018. Bridging Ecosystem Services and Territorial Planning (BEST-P): A southern South American initiative.
Funding: Programa CNR3 del IAI (Inter American Institute for Studies on Global Change).
Director: José M. Paruelo

2016-2018. Native forests, ecoystem services and human wellbeing in argentinian Northern Dry Chaco: and interdisciplinary approach to vulnerability and socio-ecological conflicts
Funding: FONCYT. PICTO 2014-0046.
Director: Matías Mastrangelo

2017-2018. Population study of Solanum commersonii Dunal (Solanaceae) under different defoliation regimes in a plant community of the Paititi Natural Reserve dominated by Paspalum quadrifarium Lam
Funding: FCA, UNMdP
Director: Osvaldo Vignolio

2016-2018. Restoration of the pollination service in a fragmented landscape: connecting plants and animals in the Pampean agriculture matrix
Funding: FONCYT PICT-2015-1691
Director: Malena Sabatino

2015-2016. Valuing ecosystem services and landscape multifunctionality in the Semiarid Chaco: conceptual and methodological constributions for land-use planning
Funding: FONCYT. PICT 2014-3092.
Director: Matías Mastrangelo

2015-2016. Population study of Solanum commersonii Dunal (Solanaceae) in a highland ecosystem of the Tandilia system (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Funding: UNMDP (AGR 484/15)
Director: Osvaldo Vignolio.

2013-2016. Thematic network “Vulnerability, Ecosystem Services and Rural Land Planning (VESPLAN)”.
Funding: Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo (CYTED).
Director: Pedro Laterra. 11 grupos de investigación de 8 países.

2013-2015. Land-use complementarity and synergism between ecosystem services in multifunctional rural landscapes.
Funding: FONCYT. PICT012-0607.
Director: Pedro Laterra

2012-2014. Evaluation of ecosystem services and rural landscape multifunctionality.
Funding: Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. AGR 389/12.
Director: Pedro Laterra

2014-2016. Implementation of Ecological Modeling and Geographic Information System tools to the conservation of wild species under the framework of pampean rural land-use planning and sustainable management.
Funding: Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica PICT 2012-0192
Director: Julieta Pedrana

2013-2015. Living on the edge: Population of Ruddy-headed Goose declining.
Funding: Antarctic Research Trust; North Star, Science and Technology
Director: Julieta Pedrana, Lucía Bernad

2012-2014. Diagnosis and dynamic of endophyte fungus infection transmited by seeds in forage grasses of agronomic importance.
Funding: UNMDP (Proyecto AGR410/13)
Director: Mabel N. Colabelli CO-DIRECTOR: Osvaldo Fernández.