Magallanes Sheep Farming

The Magallanes region in Chilean Patagonia encompasses 13 million hectares with approximately 3.6 million used for agricultural and livestock systems. This portion is located to the east of the Andean Mountain chain in the rain shadow zone, with annual precipitation increasing along an east to west gradient from 200 to almost 1,000 mm. To fully describe sheep farming in the Magallanes region, many topics need to be addressed, including sheep production and management, existing vegetative communities, livestock-wildlife interactions, and economic diversification into agritourism and another sheep industry products. All these give shape to the story of the development of sheep farming in Magallanes, which is important at the regional and national level. Three key points are identified that together can lead to a successful future for the industry: sustainable management, human resources and the market

CHLSOC: the Chilean Soil Organic Carbon database, a multi-institutional collaborative effort

A critical aspect of predicting soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations is the lack of available soil information; where information on soil characteristics is available, it is usually focused on regions of high agricultural interest. To date, in Chile, a large proportion of the SOC data have been collected in areas of intensive agricultural or forestry use; however, vast areas beyond these forms of land use have few or no soil data available. Here we present a new SOC database for the country, which is the result of an unprecedented national effort under the framework of the Global Soil Partnership. This partnership has helped build the largest database of SOC to date in Chile, named the Chilean Soil Organic Carbon database (CHLSOC), comprising 13 612 data points compiled from numerous sources, including unpublished and difficult-to-access data. The database will allow users to fill spatial gaps where no SOC estimates were publicly available previously. Presented values of SOC range from 6 x 10(-5) % to 83.3 %, reflecting the variety of ecosystems that exist in Chile. The database has the potential to inform and test current models that predict SOC stocks and dynamics at larger spatial scales, thus enabling benefits from the richness of geochemical, topographic and climatic variability in Chile.Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) CONICYT FONDECYT 11160372 Convenio CONAF-UDeC 2015 Perturbaciones Araucaria ERANet-LAC joint program ELAC2014/DCC-0092 Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT) CONICYT FONDECYT 1161492 Global Soil Partnership - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) South America Soil Partnership - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO

CHLSOC: The Chilean Soil Organic Carbon database, a multi-institutional collaborative effort

One of the critical aspects in modelling soil organic carbon (SOC) predictions is the lack of access to soil information which is usually concentrated in regions of high agricultural interest. In Chile, most soil and SOC data to date is highly concentrated in 25 % of the territory that has intensive agricultural or forestry use. Vast areas beyond those forms of land use have few or no soil data available. Here, we present a new database of SOC for the country, which is the result of an unprecedented national effort under the frame of the Global Soil Partnership that help to build the largest database on SOC to date in Chile named “CHLSOC" comprising 13,612 data points. This dataset is the product of the compilation from numerous sources including unpublished and difficult to access data, allowing to fill numerous spatial gaps where no SOC estimates were publicly available before. The values of SOC compiled in CHLSOC range from 6×10−5 to 83.3 percent, reflecting the variety of ecosystems that exists in Chile. Profiting from the richness of geochemical, topographic and climatic variability in Chile, the dataset has the potential to inform and test models trying to predict SOC stocks and dynamics at larger spatial scales.ISSN:1866-359