Andrea Cardozo

Living Labs (LLs) are often described as top-down, formally designed innovation spaces, and literature about LL research highlights scarce reports of LLs in Latin America. However, grassroots territorial-innovation spaces exist in Latin America, and we hypothesized that some of them probably agree with the LL framework. The Comarca Andina del Paralelo 42 (CAP42), located in north Patagonia, Argentina, has already seen the emergence of agroecology and organic farming in the 1960s. We considered the CAP42 as a case study for our research. We applied a multidisciplinary approach combining socio-cultural and environmental assessment at the landscape level. We revealed that interacting institutional and cultural factors have shaped the region into a site of agroecological co-innovation, and that agroecological innovation and knowledge co-creation have emerged as bottom-up, non-formalized, long-term process. The assessment of environmental indicators (forest cover loss, land use-related changes of soil properties, etc.) provided evidence for the sustainability of the CAP42 landscape. Forest cover loss observed in the last two decades (2000–2023) was mainly linked to fires rather than agricultural expansion or intensive livestock production. The CAP42 covers the three-layer network approach and place defined in the LL framework, as it is a real-world learning and innovation space enabling multi-actor co-development of context-specific solutions, through multiple forms of knowledge co-creation that align with current LL definitions. It also illustrates that sustainable, long-lasting LLs may result from historically constructed conditions, providing key insights for the development of future LLs.

Landscape complexity shapes insect spatiotemporal population dynamics and trophic interactions. In this context, understanding seasonal and environmental patterns of potential resident natural enemies of novel polyphagous herbivores, such as the globally invasive fruit fly pest Drosophila suzukii, is fundamental for developing effective landscape-scale pest management strategies. Here, we investigated for the first time in the Andean Patagonian region of Argentina the spatiotemporal dynamics and parasitism of three resident parasitoids—Leptopilina heterotoma, Pachycrepoideus vindemiae, and Spalangia endius—with the potential to attack D. suzukii across heterogeneous landscape including fruit crops and surrounding natural habitats. All three parasitoid species were recorded across all environments, although their seasonal dynamics differed. L. heterotoma peaked in spring, P. vindemiae in summer, while S. endius showed a non-significant tendency toward higher activity in autumn. We further provide the first field-based evidence in the region that S. endius successfully attacks and completes development in D. suzukii, and that D. suzukii exploits wild fruit species as alternative hosts. These findings highlight the need for further research on the pupal parasitoid S. endius to assess its potential as a suitable candidate for the development of biological control strategies.

Anthropogenic activities such as cattle grazing and forest clearing have led to the establishment of early successional grass layers in some native forests, which may inhibit or entirely prevent native tree regeneration. We hypothesize that increased grass coverage reduces or eliminates the establishment of native tree seedlings by limiting water availability to seeds and seedlings. This study aims to evaluate the impact of grass cover on tree seedling survival under varying levels of soil water stress. We conducted a field experiment using 36 experimental exclosures in two northwest Patagonian valleys, representing a regional gradient in altitude, rainfall, and tree canopy openness. Additionally, a greenhouse experiment was performed with 36 pots, manipulating four levels of grass cover and three levels of water stress. Results from both experiments showed similarities: in the field, the likelihood of finding a live tree seedling was approximately 2.78 times higher in areas without grass compared with grass‐covered sites. In the greenhouse, the presence of grass reduced the final number of established seedlings by an average of 43% across all irrigation levels, indicating significant water competition. These findings suggest that management practices promoting grass invasion could severely hinder tree regeneration in forests not adapted to large herbivore intensive grazing. Such situation may be exacerbated in regions suffering water limitation in the growing season or where the climate change would intensify water stress.