Affiliation:
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (http://www.conicet.gov.ar),
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (http://www.uncu.edu.ar) and the
Government of Mendoza (http://www.mendoza.gov.ar)
Mailing address:
Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Áridas
Centro Científico y Tecnológico CONICET Mendoza
CC 507, 5500 Mendoza, Argentina
E-Mail: iadiza@mendoza-conicet.gov.ar
Phone: +54-261-524-4100
Fax: +54-261-524-4001
Website:
http://www.mendoza-conicet.gov.ar/institutos/iadiza
Mission statement
IADIZA’s mission is to conduct research to improve scientific understanding and management practices needed to achive sustainable use of arid ecosystems, particularly in central-western Argentina.
The environment of the location
IADIZA is located at the CONICET Science and Technology Center in the beautiful General San Martín Park in Mendoza city (32° 52′ S, 68° 51′ W). Besides IADIZA, the CONICET Center harbors other institutes encompassing a diverse set of disciplines including geology, dendrochronology, glaciology and nivology of the high Andes, experimental biology and medicine and humanities. Mendoza city, the capital of Mendoza province, lays at 750 m a.s.l., at the western edge of the temperate Monte Desert biome and at the foothills of the Andes. The climate is arid to semi-arid, with ca. 250 mm of mean annual rainfall occurring mostly during the summer.
Short history and milestones
IADIZA was created in November 1972 by an agreement between the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET), the National University of Cuyo and the Government of Mendoza Province. It was founded on the basis of the former Provincial Institute of Arid and Semi-arid Zone Research.
Structure
The staff at IADIZA is composed by a diverse group of doctoral and post-doctoral fellows, staff researchers and technicians. Doctoral students are affiliated with graduate programs at the National University of Cuyo and other universities in Argentina and abroad. Many staff researchers have joint appointments at local academic institutions, including the Faculty of Agronomy and the Institute of Basic Sciences of the National University of Cuyo.
Currently, the institute is organized in nine research groups:
- Biodiversity of wild mammals
- Botany and phytosociology
- Desertification and land use planning
- Ecology and management of wild vertebrates
- Ecology of plant-animal interactions
- Ecophysiology and production
- Geobotany and phytogeography
- Population and community ecology
- Systematic and ecological entomology
In addition, the institute manages two natural areas, the Man and Biosphere (MaB) Reserve of Ñacuñán and El Divisadero Experimental Station. IADIZA also harbors scientific biological collections including an herbarium, vertebrate and insect collections and a germoplasm bank, and runs a program on Environmental Education as an outreach activity for the local community.