Constantes hidrológicas edáficas en la región subhúmedahúmeda y húmeda oriental de la República Argentina

The studied area belongs to the "Pampean prairie", the "Mesopotamia region" and the east part of the "Chaquena Attention: forest" in Argentina. It includes the whole area of the provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, Buenos Aires and Entre Rios, almost all of the province of Santa Fe, a great part of Cordoba, the east part of Chaco and Formosa, the southeast part of Santiago del Estero and the northeast part of La Pampa. The area is located between the geographic coordinates of 24° LS and 58° LW at the north and 39° LS and 64°LW at the south. The geological and physiographical characteristics of this area generated optimal soils that have being used for crops, livestock and forestation since the Spaniard colonial time. The aim of this paper was to estimate the hydrological constants of the soils considering the edaphic domains, at a 1:500,000 geographic scale thus obtaining a useful tool to make hydrological balances at regional scale and simplified maps showing their distribution, indicating without going in details how the distribution and association of the main subgroups of soils determinate the edaphic hydrological constants. Besides, their knowledge is important at the time to calculate the irrigation layer to apply complementary irrigation. The lack of field measurements in our country, states the need to estimate the hydrological constants of soils. Estimations were performed until one meter of depth or a tuff appeared, for prevailing soils in all the edaphic domains, using the Ritchie models. Results are presented in thematic maps. El área de estudio corresponde a la “Pradera Pampeana”, “Región Mesopotámia” y sector oriental del “Parque Chaqueño” de la República Argentina, y comprende: la totalidad de las provincias de Misiones, Corrientes, Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, la mayor parte de Santa Fe, gran parte de Córdoba, el sector oriental de Chaco y Formosa, el extremo SE de Santiago del Estero y NE de La Pampa. El área está localizada entre los 24° S y 58° W en el Norte y de los 39° S a los 64° W, en el Sur. La geología y fisiografia del área generaron suelos óptimos para las actividades agrícolas, ganaderas y forestales desde la época de la colonización española. El objetivo del presente trabajo fue el de estimar las constantes hidrológicas de los suelos por dominios edáficos, a escala 1:500,000, con la finalidad de poder contar con una herramienta útil para la confección del balance hidrológico a escala regional y disponer de mapas simplificados, que i