Cordillera De Los Research Articles

A new species of Andean frog of the genus Phrynopus (Anura: Strabomantidae) from southeastern Peru.

The Cordillera de los Andes is one of the most important regions for biodiversity. Among amphibians, many endemic species of terrestrial-breeding frogs have recently been discovered. Herein we describe Phrynopus sancristobali from the Andes of southeastern Peru based on molecular and morphological data. The new species is known from the ecotone between humid puna and montane forest at 3910 m a.s.l. on the left side of the Apurímac Valley in the Department of Ayacucho. The new species differs from congeners by having dorsum bearing pustules and light brown with dark brown reticulations surrounding the areolas, and coloration consisting of flanks golden brown with gray or dark brown marks, palms pale orange, soles deep orange, toes IV and V dark brown in dorsal and ventral view, belly cream to yellow with gray to light brown marks, and groin and throat deep orange. The snout-vent length (SVL) is 20.7 and 22.2 in two females, and 19.5 mm in one male. According to our phylogeny inferred using Maximum Likelihood with a concatenated dataset of three mitochondrial and two nuclear genes, P. sancristobali is sister taxon of P. apumantarum, recently described from Department Huancavelica. Our description extends the known geographic range of Phrynopus 73 km to the south, and P. sancristobali is the only species in the genus known to occur south of the Mantaro River, whose deep valley is hypothesized to be a biogeographic barrier for high-Andean organisms. The discovery of P. sancristobali confirms the high levels of endemism and beta diversity of Phrynopus in the moist puna grasslands and montane forests of the high Andes of Peru, and suggests that further work will reveal the presence of additional species in southern Peru.

A new species of Andean lizard, Proctoporus (Gymnophthalmidae: Cercosaurinae), from the highland of Parque Nacional Otishi in Peru

The gymnophthalmid Andean lizards of the genus Proctoporus (Gymnophthalmidae, Cercosaurinae) are semifossorial species that inhabit the montane forests, inter-Andean valley, and humid grasslands across the Cordillera de los Andes from Peru to Argentina. The distribution range of Proctoporus is discontinuous, with many places lacking herpetological surveys. Here, based on morphological data, we describe a new species of Proctoporus from a remote location on a mountaintop north of the Cordillera de Vilcabamba in southeastern Peru. The new species is readily distinguished from all other species of Proctoporus by the presence of three anterior infralabials, three rows of pregular scales and the absence of enlarged pregular scales. With this new species, the species diversity has increased to 19 since 18 species have previously been identified.

Chile and Film - La cordillera de los sueños. Directed by Patricio Guzmán. Produced by Renate Sachse. Co-production Chile/France. 2019. Spanish with English subtitles. Color. 85 minutes. DVD $20.00.

Chile and Film - La cordillera de los sueños. Directed by Patricio Guzmán. Produced by Renate Sachse. Co-production Chile/France. 2019. Spanish with English subtitles. Color. 85 minutes. DVD $20.00. - Volume 78 Issue 3

Cineando

The release of Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman's La Cordillera de los Sueños (Cordillera of Dreams) prompts FQ columnist Manuel Betancourt to reflect upon the reflexive turn in recent nonfiction documentaries from Latin America. Betancourt suggests that Guzmán pioneered the wave of documentary filmmakers in the region whose work marries first-person address with political urgency. Broadening his focus to include Petra Costa and Tatiana Huezo, whose films The Edge of Democracy and Tempestad explore the political collateral damage in Brazil and the violence against women in Mexico respectively, Betancourt argues that these filmmakers' embrace of self-reflexive strategies places them at the forefront of a vital nonfiction tradition that puts personal narratives front and center.

<p><strong><em>Trichoneura peruviana </em></strong><strong>(Poaceae, Trichoneurinae), a new species from Peru</strong></p>

Trichoneura peruviana sp. nov. is described and illustrated. The new species, from the Western Cordillera de los Andes in Peru, in the middle of the snowy Goylanto and Paylogen at Omate valley, differs from T. lindleyana in having longer glumes (lower glumes 5–5.25 × 0.2–0.25 mm and upper glumes 5.5–5.7 × 0.3–0.4 mm), shorter fertile lemmas 2.1–2.5 mm long with ciliate margins, the cilia 0.5–0.6 mm long, and the lemma apex is dentate, 2−fid, and 1-awned with awns 1.5−3.5 mm long. A key to the species of Trichoneura in Peru is included and the conservation status of the new species is evaluated.

Mallines en la Sierra de Comechingones, Sierras Pampeanas, Argentina. Caracterización geológico-geomorfológica y reconstrucción paleoambiental durante el Holoceno

Wet-meadows are wetlands of high environmental value and common in the Patagonia, Cordillera de los Andes and Pampean Ranges of Argentina. Particularly, the studies about the functioning and dynamics of wet-meadows are still insufficient and partials in Pampean Ranges. In this paper we analyze the geological-geomorphological factors that influenced the origin, distribution, morphometry and dynamics of wet-meadows in highlands of the southern Comechingones Range (Pampean Ranges of Córdoba, Argentina). A paleoenvironmental reconstruction from sedimentological, palynological, diatomological and chronological records of one of these systems is also proposed. The study area is located at an erosion paleosurface developed previously to the andean orogeny, on an igneous-metamorphic basement rocks. This paleosurface is preserved in the eastern slope of the Comechingones Range and shows different degree of fluvial incision. Most wetmeadows are linked to geomorphological environments with low morphodynamic activity, especially in the granitic rocks and loessic/loessoid deposits preserved in summit plains. The main source of sediments for wet-meadows is the reworking of Quaternary loessic/loessoide sequences. The wetmeadow paleorecords suggests the persistence of wetlands in the Comechingones Range highlands during most of the Holocene, with contractions and expansions in response to environmental variability. The Holocene climate conditions were variable, mainly related to changes in water availability and temperature. A drier period than the current, at least temporarily, took place between ca. 7,000 and 4,700 cal. years BP (6,400 and 4,100 14C years BP). Climatic conditions similar to the current ones were likely established since 4,700 cal. years BP (4,326 14C years BP). During the last centuries, incision and drainage networks integration processes, promote the removal of several wetlands, especially since 1,970s due to precipitation increasing and, subordinately, frequent wildfires.

Escamoteos cartográficos. Tácticas e interpretaciones del mapa del ‘Paisaje Cultural Cafetero’ de Colombia, Patrimonio Mundial.

This article examines the role of cartography in patrimonial representation. It does so through a case analysis of Colombia’s ‘Coffee Cultural Landscape’, inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) since 2011. An inscription comprising four departments; and fifty-one municipalities, located in the Cordillera de los Andes. When investigating the antecedents and effects of this demarcation, complex exchanges are found between practices and representations, implicit to the processes and different protagonists of heritagization. Focusing on the act of mapping, both the interpretative models of the space that were in dispute during the preparation of the inscription are analyzed, as well as some local reinterpretations registered, after the same, by means of an ethnographic approach in one of the municipalities recognized as heritage.

Leveraging Multi-Sensor Time Series Datasets to Map Short- and Long-Term Tropical Forest Disturbances in the Colombian Andes

The spatial distribution of disturbances in Andean tropical forests and protected areas has commonly been calculated using bi or tri-temporal analysis because of persistent cloud cover and complex topography. Long-term trends of vegetative decline (browning) or improvement (greening) have thus not been evaluated despite their importance for assessing conservation strategy implementation in regions where field-based monitoring by environmental authorities is limited. Using Colombia’s Cordillera de los Picachos National Natural Park as a case study, we provide a temporally rigorous assessment of regional vegetation change from 2001–2015 with two remote sensing-based approaches using the Breaks For Additive Season and Trend (BFAST) algorithm. First, we measured long-term vegetation trends using a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-based Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) time series, and, second, we mapped short-term disturbances using all available Landsat images. MAIAC-derived trends indicate a net greening in 6% of the park, but in the surrounding 10 km area outside of the park, a net browning trend prevails at 2.5%. We also identified a 12,500 ha area within Picachos (4% of the park’s total area) that has shown at least 13 years of consecutive browning, a result that was corroborated with our Landsat-based approach that recorded a 12,642 ha (±1440 ha) area of disturbed forest within the park. Landsat vegetation disturbance results had user’s and producer’s accuracies of 0.95 ± 0.02 and 0.83 ± 0.18, respectively, and 75% of Landsat-detected dates of disturbance events were accurate within ±6 months. This study provides new insights into the contribution of short-term disturbance to long-term trends of vegetation change, and offers an unprecedented perspective on the distribution of small-scale disturbances over a 15-year period in one of the most inaccessible national parks in the Andes.

Neoelmis guarani Shepard & Barr, a sexually dimorphic new species from Paraguay (Insecta: Coleoptera: Elmidae: Elminae).

Neoelmis guarani new species is described and illustrated from specimens collected in streams of the Cordillera de los Altos, southeast of Asunción and near the towns of Piribebuy and Chololó, Paraguay. Males and females of this species exhibit strong secondary sexual dimorphism not found in other known species of Neoelmis. Males have striking modifications of the pro- and mesothoracic legs and bear a pair of ventrally projecting processes on both the mesoventrite and the second abdominal ventrite. Females have the elytra modified with a pair of dorsal projections.

Dos nuevas especies de ranas <em>Pristimantis</em> (Craugastoridae) de la cordillera de los Sacha Llanganatis, vertiente oriental de los Andes de Ecuador

Describimos dos especies nuevas de ranas terrestres del género Pristimantis provenientes del bosque nublado de la Reserva Río Zuñag, ubicada en las estribaciones de la cordillera de los Sacha Llanganatis, área de amortiguamiento del Parque Nacional Llanganates, en la vertiente oriental de los Andes centrales de Ecuador. La primera especie se diferencia de sus congéneres por presentar un distintivo patrón de coloración en tonos café y superficies ocultas de extremidades posteriores e ingles negras. La segunda es la única especie de Pristimantis en la región caracterizada por la presencia de una cresta dérmica occipital en forma de “W”, una distintiva marca pálida en forma de “V” invertida y superficies ocultas de ingles y extremidades posteriores de color rojizo.

Copahue Geothermal System: A Volcanic Environment with Rich Extreme Prokaryotic Biodiversity.

The Copahue geothermal system is a natural extreme environment located at the northern end of the Cordillera de los Andes in Neuquén province in Argentina. The geochemistry and consequently the biodiversity of the area are dominated by the activity of the Copahue volcano. The main characteristic of Copahue is the extreme acidity of its aquatic environments; ponds and hot springs of moderate and high temperature as well as Río Agrio. In spite of being an apparently hostile location, the prokaryotic biodiversity detected by molecular ecology techniques as well as cultivation shows a rich and diverse environment dominated by acidophilic, sulphur oxidising bacteria or archaea, depending on the conditions of the particular niche studied. In microbial biofilms, found in the borders of the ponds where thermal activity is less intense, the species found are completely different, with a high presence of cyanobacteria and other photosynthetic species. Our results, collected during more than 10 years of work in Copahue, have enabled us to outline geomicrobiological models for the different environments found in the ponds and Río Agrio. Besides, Copahue seems to be the habitat of novel, not yet characterised autochthonous species, especially in the domain Archaea.

Variations in the Patterns of Precipitation in the Watershed of the Ambato River Associated with the Eruptive Process of the Tungurahua Volcano in Ecuador

The Tungurahua, located in the Cordillera de los Andes, is the volcano with the most eruptive activity in Ecuador nowadays. 1993 records the eruptive initial process and in August of 1999, after almost 80 years of rest, the volcano begins an explosive eruptive period. This research examines the effects of the eruptive process of the volcano in the patterns of change in precipitation in the short term in a hydrographic watershed. Their results are intended to contribute to the studies carried out to understand the weather and the factors influencing its variability at local and global level. It aims also to contribute with technical data in the debate about experimenting with artificial volcanoes to weather modification. The analysis demonstrates a process of redistribution of rainfall, with significant increases in rainfall from 42.25% on December, and significant decreases of 40.03% on September, during the presence of the eruptive process.

Una nueva especie del grupo Drosophila annulimana (Diptera, Drosophilidae) y un nuevo registro en las Provincias de Pichincha y Napo, Ecuador

En estudios realizados en el bosque nublado Intillacta, provincia de Pichincha, Ecuador, y en la Cordillera de los Guacamayos, provincia de Napo, Ecuador, se encontró una nueva especie de Drosophila. En base a estudios de la morfología de la genitalia masculina, se propone que, Drosophila intillacta sp. nov. pertenece al grupo Drosophila annulimana. Así mismo, se reporta Drosophila tarsata Schiner, 1868, capturada en la Cordillera de los Guacamayos, como un nuevo registro para el país.

A new giant Atractus (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) from Ecuador, with notes on some other large Amazonian congeners.

We describe a new species of Atractus from Cordillera de los Guacamayos in the Andes of Ecuador. This new species is the largest known species of Atractus, reaching almost 120 cm in total length with a robust habitus. We also use multivariate statistical analyses of morphometric data to look into the taxonomic confusion involving other large, banded/blotched, species of Atractus in Western Amazonia. We show that A. snethlageae has a widespread distribution in Amazonia and has been repeatedly confused with A. major in Ecuador owing to its color polymorphism. Our multivariate statistical analyses support previous suggestions to recognize A. snethlageae as a distinct species relative to A. flammigerus. Taxonomic accounts are provided for both A. major and A. snethlageae including detailed color pattern descriptions. We also find that there are no valid morphological differences to support recognizing A. arangoi as a separate species from A. major; consequently we synonymize the former name with the latter.

Four new species of the genus <i>Racinaea</i> (Bromeliaceae) from Ecuador

Four new species belonging to the genus Racinaea (formerly Tillandsia subgenus Pseudo-Catopsis, Bromeliaceae) from Ecuador are described and illustrated here. The new species R. condorensis from the province of Zamora-Chinchipe in the southern region of Ecuador is similar to R. contorta. Racinaea guacamayosensis from the Cordillera de los Guacamayos, an area close to Tena in the province of Napo, has close affinity with R. diffusa and R. penlandii. Racinaea terrestris from the province of Morona-Santiago, southern Ecuador, is also similar to R. diffusa. The new species R. tillii from the cloudy, cool mountain forest on the Amazonian side of the Andes in Napo province, is very alike R. penlandii. Distinguishing characters between these species are provided.

Late Cretaceous Uplift in the Malargüe fold-and-thrust belt (35ºS), southern Central Andes of Argentina and Chile

The Cordillera de los Andes is the typical example of a subduction-related orogen. Its present topography is the result of post-Miocene uplift, however, Andean compressional deformation and uplift started in the Late Cretaceous, as increasingly recognized in different sectors of the mountain belt. We present evidences of a Late Cretaceous event of compressional deformation in the southern Central Andes (35oS), reflected in syn-orogenic foreland basin deposits assigned to the Neuquen Group in Argentina and the Brownish-Red Clastic Unit in Chile. Comparison of the facies of these units allows us to recognize a sector proximal to the Late Cretaceous orogenic front, a distal sector with sediment provenance from the forebulge and a western sector where the sediments where deposited within the Late Cretaceous mountain belt. On this basis, we assign the orogenic front to an inverted Jurassic normal fault, the Rio del Cobre fault, and reconstruct the structure of the easternmost Late Cretaceous Andes at this latitude. The change in the location of the orogenic front north and south of 35oS allows us to recognize a long-lived change in behavior in Andean evolution in this sector, which correlates with a change in the shape and the deposits of Mesozoic Neuquen basin.

Migración chilena a la Argentina: Entre el exilio político y la migración económica-cultural

Migrations to both sides of the Cordillera de los Andes have been present in the history of both countries. This article proposes to think over two types of "migration" between Chile and Argentina. On the one hand, the political exile of a large number of Chileans to Argentina during the dictatorship of Pinochet. And, on the other hand, the recent Chilean migration from the late nineties, mainly an economic and / or cultural type. Indeed, these are two different analytical categories: migration and exile. On this matter, we aim to discuss and to pave the way for a debate on the characteristics, similarities and differences between recent migration and the Chilean exile considering some of the following issues: i) socio-historical processes that allow us to understand different migration patterns, ii) the rol of national states in the formulation of migration policies, both for emigrants and immigrants and iii) the processes of political, social and cultural organization as expressions not only of integration to the destination country but also as ways to keep the linkages to the home country.

Protective role of HSF1 and HSP70 in rat testis apoptotic cells exposed to chronic hypobaric hypoxia

High altitude exposure is an unusual situation. However, this phenomenon is frequently found in the north of Chile, thanks to the continuous movement of mining workers at the Cordillera de los Andes. In rat testis, this condition known as chronic hypobaric hypoxia (CHH) induces oxidative stress and hyperthermia, conducing to apoptosis and hypospermatogenesis. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the expression of HSP70 and HSF1 in the spermatogenic stages in front of thermal stress induced by CHH and also to determine the apoptotic level. Teen-weeks-old male Wistar rats were exposed to normoxia and CHH, corresponding to 4600 m of simulated altitude for a period of 5, 15 and 30 days. Immunohistochemistry and western blot showed a significative and progressive increase in HSP70 expression in spermatogonias, spermatocytes and Sertoli cells along the exposure time. The transcription factor expression HSF1 in testis was also increased in CHH, but it was decreased after 30 days. Finally, apoptosis was increased in spermatogonias, spermatocytes and spermatids but decreased after 15 days in spermatids and after 30 days in spermatogonias and spermatocytes. In conclusion, testicular hyperthermia induced by the CHH exposure conduces to increase HSF1 and HSP70 expression, protecting cell integrity and attenuating the apoptotic effect induced by this condition. By grant: INNOVA CORFO-Chile 06FCO11BC-118

Parcelas de agrado alrededor de Santiago y Valparaíso: ¿Migración por amenidad a la chilena?

The article analyzes the legal framework, distribution and spatial structure of amenity migration in mountain regions in Chile (Cordillera de la Costa, Cordillera de los Andes) and their trends in recent decades. Presents three case studies, two in mountainous regions and one in a semi-mountainous area. Based on qualitative data (interview with experts), and the relations between neighbors and the conflicts between immigrants and the traditional population. The article ends with an evaluation of the economic and social consequences of new parks or residential plots pleased calls up a batch of over 5,000 m 2 .

Re-description and neotypification ofArchamphiroa jurassicaSteinmann 1930, a calcareous red alga from the Jurassic of Argentina

Archamphiroa jurassica was described by Steinmann (1930) from carbonate deposits of the Cordillera de los Andes in Mendoza, central Argentina (Arroyo Negro, confluent of Malargüe River), assigned to the Callovian stage. Based on the general morphology and the internal structure of the identified fragments, Steinmann considered them to belong to the coralline algae. Comparisons made with some fossil and extant corallines species led him to the conclusion thatArchamphiroa jurassicaclosely resembles some species of the extant genusAmphiroa.