Pampas region: characteristics, flora and fauna

We will start with a brief description of the Argentine pampas :

• In principle, the biome of the Pampean region is classified as a wide, mainly flat grassland and, in fact, it is the most extensive grassland in Argentina since its extension includes the provinces of Córdoba, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, La Pampa and Buenos Aires .
• Being a meadow, the relief of the Pampean region is mostly flat and presents slight undulations towards the east.
• Regarding the economic activity carried out in the Argentine pampas, agriculture and livestock are the most important activities and even the main sources of income in the country. For this reason, you may wonder what the soil is like in the Pampas region , which constitutes the sustenance of such crucial activities. Being a large region, there are various types of soils, some with higher organic matter content, others with considerable clay content. However, most of them have in common a certain degree of degradation, a product of the aforementioned economic activities and, in view of this, it is necessary to emphasize that there are practically no remnants of the Argentine pampas that have not been altered by anthropic activities.
• Regarding the climate of the Pampean region , we can indicate that it is temperate and with well-marked seasons: cold winters with frosts and hot summers, in which most of the rainfall occurs.
• Finally, as we mentioned at the beginning, the Pampas region has a wide extension, so that it is divided into several regions or sub-regions that are different from each other. That is why to finish with this section, we will tell you how the Pampas region is divided .

Subregions of the Pampean Plain

• Wavy Pampas: it is located in the north of the Pampas region, from the center to the east. It is one of the most urbanized and industrialized subregions.
• Interior Pampas: it is distributed from the center to the west of the Pampas region. In the western limits of it, the climate becomes semi-arid, which makes activities related to agriculture difficult.
• Floodplain or depressed: it is found in the southeast on the province of Buenos Aires. It is characterized by being an extremely flat plain, limited by the extraordinary mountains of Tandilia and Ventania. Flooding in this subregion is frequent because there are no drainage slopes.
• Mesopotamian Pampas: it is found to the north and east of the Argentine pampas. This subregion stands out mainly for forestry activity.
• Austral Pampas: it develops towards the south west of the region. It is a subregion with great industrial and livestock activity.

Apart from learning all this about the Pampas region, we advise you to also take a look at this other AgroCorrn article about the 18 ecoregions of Argentina . Now that you have discovered the characteristics of the Argentine pampas , we will now comment on its flora and fauna, which are also part of the most important characteristics of this natural region.

In the previous section we said that the Pampean region itself is an extensive meadow and, therefore, is made up of various plant communities dominated by grassland species . Some of the most characteristic plant species of the Pampas region are:

• Flechillares ( Stipa spp ., Paspalum spp ., Piptochaetium spp . And Aristida spp .).
• Red grass ( Sorghastrum pellitum ).
• Woody hay ( Paspalum dilatatum ).
• Tembladerilla ( Briza subaristata ).
• Poa ( Poa spp. ).

However, not the entire region is made up of grasslands. There are some shrubs such as, for example, species of the genus Baccharis spp . and Margyricarpus spp . There are also tree species, where the ombú ( Phytolacca dioica ), is a tree best known for its particularity of providing shade and for being part of multiple and amazing legends.

Here below you can see the images of the flora of the Pampas region in the same order that the species appear in this list.

At first, the Pampean grasslands were the habitat of abundant species of mammals and birds. On the contrary, the exploitation of the Pampean ecosystems for the development of agriculture and livestock led to the fact that currently few animals live in the wild in the Argentine Pampas . The reality is that the Pampas biodiversity was strongly reduced and displaced by monoculture and livestock and, as a consequence, many species became extinct. Even so, here we will mention some of the native animal species of the Pampas region:

• Puma ( Puma concolor ).
• Rhea ( Rhea americana ).
• Tufted partridge or crested martineta ( Eudromia elegans ).
• Pampas deer ( Ozotoceros bezoarticus ).
• Cuis ( Microcavia australis).
• Hairy armadillo ( Chaetophractus villosus ).

Here below you can see the photos of the fauna of the Pampas region in the same order that the species appear in this list.

To learn more about the fauna of this country, we advise you to read these other posts about the 30 native animals of Argentina and 34 animals in danger of extinction in Argentina . In addition, to better understand both the flora and fauna of this country, do not hesitate to enter this other article about the Flora and fauna of Argentina .