Impacto de los pingüinos patagónicos (Spheniscus magellanicus) en la dinámica geomorfológica de Punta Estrada (Patagonia austral, Argentina)

Abstract

Punta Entrada, a coastal territory located at the Santa Cruz river mouth (Patagonia, Argentina), is undergoing an intense process of aeolian erosion that is both, changing the landscape and affecting the archaeological heritage deposited there. To establish the cause or causes underlying this process multiple lines of evidence are considered here: multitemporal analysis of vertical aerial photographs and satellite images, climate and zooarchaeological data, as well as historical information, and the impact assessment of sheep farming and wildlife. It is concluded that the installation of the Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) breeding colony in Punta Entrada in the 1970s was the main trigger factor for that erosion. The excavation of thousands of nests and the trampling by these birds generated a sharp an irreversible sequence of vegetation loss and deflation of dune materials since that time onwards.