Dr. Virginia Alonso Roldán, Argentina

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Dr. Virginia Alonso Roldán

2019 Status   Researchgate Profile

2012-2019 PhD, Instituto Patagónico para el Estudio de los Ecosistemas Continentales (IPEEC-CONICET)

2007-2012 PhD Scholar,  National Scientific and Technical Research Council

    Study of habitat selection and spatial ecology of Dolichotis Patagonum, an endemic rodent from Argentina.

2015 Conference Paper: 

Spatial Distribution and Habitat Selection: Primary Concerns for Maras’s Conservation

* Presenter: Virginia Alonso Roldán, Argentina Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)

Mara (Dolichotis patagonum) is an endemic mammal of the Argentine semi-deserts, Near Threatened according to IUCN. Identifying the main factors influencing habitat selection by mara is essential to develop effective conservation actions. Using GIS, it was possible to map activity signs at different scales (microhabitat, habitat, landscape) working in extensions from 200 to 2000 ha. Also vegetation cover was measured, and roads, windmills and fences were mapped to extract landscape metrics and distances to human-made structures and neighbor warrens. Spatial explicit and generalized mixed models were fit to assess the importance of social, ecological and spatial processes in habitat selection by mara and the scales at which these processes are operating. Results showed that similar factors influence habitat use at different scales, preferring sites with bare soil and close to fences, indicating that habitat modification due to human infrastructure would not threaten this species. However, habitat selection by mara differed depending on the landscape structure, preferring open areas in shrubland or shrub-grass mosaic sites and areas close to bushes in grassland areas. At landscape level warren distribution presented aggregated patterns, pointing to social processes as strong influences in mara habitat selection. Conservation actions for this species should protect heterogeneous landscapes from agriculture and areas with more than one known settlement.

2015 Scholar Profile: 

Organization name: Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)
*-Organization full street address: Bvd. 2915, U 9120 ACF - Puerto Madryn, Chubut, ARGENTINA
*-Organization full mailing address, if different:
*-Country: Argentina
*-Work phone with country and area code: 54-280-488-3184
*-Work fax with country and area code:54-280-488-3543
*-Main email: direccion@cenpat.edu.ar
*-Organization Web site URL if any: http://www.cenpat-conicet.gob.ar/

describe the work that your current organization does: The Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT) is a multidisciplinary research institution, belonging to the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET). CENPAT is a reference institution within Patagonia in many issues related with wildlife and environment conservation, housing researchers highly specialized working in a multidisciplinary way, providing basic and applied knowledge regarding sustainable use of natural resources, advising application authorities regarding conservation policies and carrying out  information and education programs addressed to the local community.

2015 Introduction Video: 

CENPAT has as vision to be an interdisciplinary scientific-technologial node, committed to the society, who promote the critical and free thought, promote the social return and knowledge transfer towards the cultural and economic development of the region, integrate studies with environmental and social problems, in a framework of respect for and commitment with human rights, cultural diversity, natural environment and values of the institution.  
The mission is:
-To promote the generation of scientific technological knowledge according to environmental, socioeconomic and cultural problems, by means of interdisciplinary work, free and critical thought.
-To encourage the valuing and respect of history, cultural diversity and biodiversity.
-To foster knowledge generation, human resources creation, socialization and transference of knowledge to the community and cooperation with governmental and non-governmental organisms who work to achieve the common good.
In the regional and international scenario CENPAT is part of several networks as EcoFluvial network (The Network for the Conservation of River Ecosystems of Patagonia, http://www.cenpat-conicet.gob.ar/fluvial/inicio?language=en), Maricultura network (Network for the strengthening of coastal mariculture in Paragonia, http://www.cenpat-conicet.gob.ar/mariculturaenred/), and is database center as Regional OBIS Node (Ocean Biogeographic Information System, www.iobis.org) and by housing several biological collections.  In addition, several research groups are related with international ONGs as The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Wildlife Conservation Society, receiving funds and developing research programs in collaboration with these organizations oriented to conservation. I would also highlight that CENPATis an internationally outstanding institution given that house four PEW fellows.

describe your personal role in the organization: I am a posdoc scholar of CONICET since April 2014 but I am working at CENPAT since 2007 when start my PhD. My duties include research and outreach. During my PhD my activities were focused to the mara conservation project researching about spatial ecology and habitat preferences of maras. The results of my research are not still published but were required by the community so I became the reference person within the institute in all the issues related with mara ecology and conservation. In this context I have represented CENPAT as an expert in TNC workshop of strategic planning for conservation, in the framework of the project “Conservation of Patagonian Grasslands”, and the Península Valdés Protected Area management plan process  because in both occasions the mara was considered a conservation object. As other outreach activity in the framework of the mara conservation project I have trained rangers and technical agents of the General Direction of Conservation and Protected Areas of the Chubut province in the search, geopositioning and observation of mara warrens in order to set the basis for a provincial monitoring program of mara populations. I have also developed education activities related with mara project that were addressed to:
- the whole community of Puerto Madryn through our participation in CENPAT Abierto (an open-house day at the Centro Nacional Patagónico for the general public to learn about the scientific activities carried out at the institute)
- to tourist guides and school teachers, two important groups for the dissemination of the knowledge available on mara biology and conservation, by means of the realization of tow workshops
-undergraduate students that participate in fieldwork and data processing, learning about mara ecology, research techniques, GIS and basic spatial data processing and analysis.
Academically speaking, the main accomplishment within the mara conservation project was to develop a monitoring protocol for mara population in order to fill the gap of information about mara population abundance and status (there are no quantitative data!). As products of this activity an undergraduate student of the Universidad de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco made her thesis, which was communicated to provincial authorities as management recommendations, and a paper is about to be published in an international journal.
Related with the “human” side of my work with maras, I would like to refer and amazing experience I lived during fieldwork when a local ranch keeper became very interested in my work with maras, participated in warren searches and learn to use GPS equipment. Because that he learn about GPS and about my GIS work hi ask me for help and together we mapped the roads, fences and windmills of the ranch and planed a new paddock, calculating the fences extensions. I think this is great because in addition to help local people with their necessities I was able to establish a nexus to get local people involved with the sustainable use of natural resources, which I consider fundamental for the success of conservation programs. 

Besides my personal projects I belong to a working group within which I collaborate with colleagues to produce basic knowledge on ecology of Guanacos (Lama guanicoe), Choiques (Rhea pennata) and maras, their population status, their relation with human activities and habitat configuration, and provides management recommendations. We work tightly related with other groups working on overgrazing effects, insect and rodent diversity and bioingenier species. Regarding GIS, we shear mapped information with these and other working groups and the General Direction of Conservation and Protected Areas of the Chubut province. Also we have trained rangers on GPS use, mapping and visualizing basic issues.

describe the history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: My passion for biodiversity andconservation starts when I was in high school  and discovered how wonderful life is reading Hellen Curtis Biology textbook for Biology Olympics. But was when I was an undergraduate student that I start my relation (that continue up to the present) with a local NGO from my natal city (TELLUS, Southern Conservationist Association, www.tellus.org.ar) and my participation in conservation by performing an assessment of exotic species in TELLUS’ Wildlife Refuge with management recommendations (2003). After that all may work was related in one way or the other with conservation issues, and even in my graduation thesis [Analysis of variability and population structure in Helianthus petiolaris Nutt.] developed in a sunflower research group with production interest I find the way to see the conservation implications of the distribution and variability of this exotic wild sunflower (2004).  During my Master studies in Wildlife Management (2004-2006, http://www.efn.uncor.edu/escuelas/mmvs/index.htm) I took contact for the first time with GIS and landscape ecology issues and learn the importance of spatial processes for conservation decisions, which was determinant guiding my professional interests. Carrying out my master thesis I worked with the Greater and Lesser Reas Conservation Group (http://www.efn.uncor.edu/departamentos/cza/nandues/nandues.htm) and could apply my population genetic and landscape ecology knowledge to the evaluation of the effect of land use in central Argentina over Greater Rhea (Rhea americana) population variability and spatial dynamics, showing that agriculture practices fragment and threaten this large flightless bird, and that its captive populations are good gene reservoirs (2006). 

Live Map Application created during the 2015 UC Davis-SCGIS Web GIS Training.
Dr Virginia Alonso Roldán, Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT), Argentina
Storymap of Sites within Peninsula Valdes where visitors can see mara (Dolichotis patagonum) (This webmap will have additional changes over the next few days.)

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