Natural Laboratories
Being a unique location worldwide is the first attribute that defines a natural laboratory. However, to become such, it also requires the vision of researchers and public policies that allow it to be implemented. This confluence of biophysical, cultural, and political attributes has come together to create the natural laboratories of Cape Horn in the subantarctic Magellanic ecoregion and in the Atacama Desert in Chile. In its biophysical dimension, the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR) has no biogeographic replica at a planetary level, and provides a baseline from which it is possible to investigate some ecosystems under preindustrial conditions to allow a better understanding of climate change. In its cultural dimension, researchers have generated a methodological approach called “field environmental philosophy” for integrating the natural sciences along with the humanities, the arts, and ethics into biocultural conservation, education, and research. In Atacama, the place with the clearest skies on the planet, the world’s largest platform for the development of astronomical observations has been established. This section guides readers to learn about the research platforms at these two unique natural laboratories.
Switch between the microcosm and macrocosm perspectives by clicking on the circles below.
The original virtual exhibition includes the option to switch between the microcosm and macrocosm within the individual chapters (see screenshot below).
Here we present the subchapters one after the other.
The Cape Horn Research, Education, and Conservation Platform
Figure 1. Detail of altitudinal gradient and sampling sites through the Róbalo River watershed protected by the Omora Park. To empirically investigate the impact of climate change on subantarctic insects and plants, places with different temperatures and climatic conditions are selected as long-term study sites along the altitudinal gradient. Figure created by Silvia Lazzarino, n.d.
Figure 1. Detail of altitudinal gradient and sampling sites through the Róbalo River watershed protected by the Omora Park. To empirically investigate the impact of climate change on subantarctic insects and plants, places with different temperatures and climatic conditions are selected as long-term study sites along the altitudinal gradient. Figure created by Silvia Lazzarino, n.d.
© Fundación Omora. Used by permission.
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In 2000, the Omora Ethnobotanical Park, Navarino Island, was created as a natural laboratory, an outdoor classroom, and a long-term ecological research (LTER) site for the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR). It also serves as a “sentinel for climate change” because Omora Park protects a river basin that includes habitat types characteristic of the CHBR in an altitudinal gradient with a thermal decrease analogous to that which occurs with increases in latitude (Figure 1). This makes it an ideal site for studies on climate change and its impact on biota and subantarctic ecosystems.
Among the functions of biosphere reserves is the support scientific research, education, training, and monitoring. In the CHBR, created in 2005, this function has been fulfilled with the creation of the Omora Ethnobotanical Park in 2000, and its implementation in 2008 as a cofounder site of the Chilean Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Network (LTSER). In 2016, this network was strengthened with the addition of the new Cape Horn Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Network (LTER-Cape Horn). The latter includes the Omora Ethnobotanical Park, and three new sites added to the monitoring of the subantarctic Magellanic ecoregion (Figure 2).
In 2015, UNESCO approved the Report of the First Periodic Review of the CHBR that proposed the protection of the Diego Ramírez archipelago and the creation of the Diego Ramírez Islands–Drake Passage Marine Park (DRMP). The promulgation of this new park was finally achieved on 2 February 2018, and it was officially decreed by the Chilean government on 21 January 2019 (Official Gazette 2019). In this context, the new LTER-Cape Horn network has been given relevance on a local and global scale. At the local scale, it covers a representative environmental heterogeneity of the great diversity of landscapes and terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems that characterize the subantarctic Magellanic ecoregion. On a global scale, the terrestrial ecosystems of the LTER-Cape Horn network stand out for two main reasons: (1) these subantarctic ecosystems lack a geographical replicate in other continents of the Southern Hemisphere, and (2) high-latitude ecosystems are especially sensitive to global climate change. Thus, the LTER-Cape Horn network helps to overcome critical geographical gaps in the implementation of the International Network for Long-Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER). The implementation of the LTER-Cape Horn network is based on a close collaboration with various public institutions: the Ministry of National Assets, the Ministry of the Environment, the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the National Forestry Service, the General Water Directorate of the Ministry of Public Works, the Chilean Navy, the Chilean national law enforcement police (Carabineros de Chile), the municipality of Cape Horn, the provincial government of Chilean Antarctica, and the regional government of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica. In the future, the LTER-Cape Horn network and the Cape Horn Center aim to strengthen the participation of the local community, especially the Yaghan Indigenous Community of Bahía Mejillones, artisanal fisheries, tour operators, and the educational community, including private actors. Located at the “southern summit” of the Americas, Puerto Williams, capital of the Chilean Antarctic Province, emerges as a global hub for transdisciplinary subantarctic research.
Figure 2. The LTER-Cape Horn Network with its four main sites for long-term ecological studies, from south to north: (1) Gonzalo Island (56°31’ south, 68°43’ west), at the southern end of the Diego Ramírez Archipelago, with subantarctic vegetation dominated by grasses and cryptogams, devoid of woody species; (2) Horn Island (55°58’ south, 67°13’ west), at the southern end of the Cape Horn Archipelago, hosting the southernmost forest ecosystems on the planet, which are dominated by the evergreen beech (Nothofagus betuloides); (3) Omora Park (54°57’ south, 67°40’ west), Navarino Island, an ideal site for studies on climate change and its impact on biota and subantarctic ecosystems, since it protects a watershed that includes a representative mosaic of characteristic habitats of the CHBR in an altitudinal gradient with a thermal decrease analogous to that which occurs with increases in latitude; and (4) Caleta 2 de Mayo Site (54°52’ south, 68°41’ west), Yendegaia Bay, in an ecotonal zone between evergreen and deciduous forests (product of the local climate gradient), at a site that will be central to future connectivity between continental Chile, Tierra del Fuego, Navarino Island, and the CHBR. Note in the central box that the Diego Ramírez Islands are near the edge of the continental shelf. In each of the side boxes, yellow dots indicate the location of monitoring stations in terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal-marine ecosystems. Figure taken from Rozzi et al. (2020).
Figure 2. The LTER-Cape Horn Network with its four main sites for long-term ecological studies, from south to north: (1) Gonzalo Island (56°31’ south, 68°43’ west), at the southern end of the Diego Ramírez Archipelago, with subantarctic vegetation dominated by grasses and cryptogams, devoid of woody species; (2) Horn Island (55°58’ south, 67°13’ west), at the southern end of the Cape Horn Archipelago, hosting the southernmost forest ecosystems on the planet, which are dominated by the evergreen beech (Nothofagus betuloides); (3) Omora Park (54°57’ south, 67°40’ west), Navarino Island, an ideal site for studies on climate change and its impact on biota and subantarctic ecosystems, since it protects a watershed that includes a representative mosaic of characteristic habitats of the CHBR in an altitudinal gradient with a thermal decrease analogous to that which occurs with increases in latitude; and (4) Caleta 2 de Mayo Site (54°52’ south, 68°41’ west), Yendegaia Bay, in an ecotonal zone between evergreen and deciduous forests (product of the local climate gradient), at a site that will be central to future connectivity between continental Chile, Tierra del Fuego, Navarino Island, and the CHBR. Note in the central box that the Diego Ramírez Islands are near the edge of the continental shelf. In each of the side boxes, yellow dots indicate the location of monitoring stations in terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal-marine ecosystems. Figure taken from Rozzi et al. (2020).
© Fundación Omora. Used by permission.
The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works.
Finally, in 2022 the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC) was inaugurated in Puerto Williams. The building was funded by the regional government of Magallanes, Chile. Built on a 2.2 hectare site in the city of Puerto Williams, the center‘s size is 2,581 square meters, and it has LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) environmental certification. It will host the University of Magallanes and the Cape Horn International Center (funded by the Chilean Agency for Research and Development [ANID], part of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation), and it is organized in three modules: (1) Technical and Higher Education, (2) Sustainable Tourism and Biocultural Conservation, and (3) Transdisciplinary Research (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Digital models of the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC) building in Puerto Williams, Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Chile. Top left, general view from the Beagle Channel. Top right, southeast view of the CHIC building fronts. Below, placement of CHIC’s three modules in the final location and their objectives. N.d.
Figure 3. Digital models of the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC) building in Puerto Williams, Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Chile. Top left, general view from the Beagle Channel. Top right, southeast view of the CHIC building fronts. Below, placement of CHIC’s three modules in the final location and their objectives. N.d.
© Fundación Omora. Used by permission.
The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works.
Collaboration with regional, national, and international actors will allow the LTER-Cape Horn network and CHIC (Figure 4) to: (i) provide critical data, which will open up new opportunities for monitoring climate change and its impact on biodiversity and ecosystems in subantarctic latitudes; (ii) consolidate long-term monitoring, which is an essential component to effectively design mitigation and adaptation actions; (iii) strengthen a local sustainable development model that, in association with the CHBR, contributes from the south of the world to a biocultural conservation model that meets the needs of socio-economic well-being and environmental sustainability at multiple regional and planetary scales.
Figure 4. Photograph of the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC) building in Puerto Williams, on Navarino Island, Chile. Photograph by Camilo Quidel, May 2022.
Figure 4. Photograph of the Cape Horn International Center (CHIC) building in Puerto Williams, on Navarino Island, Chile. Photograph by Camilo Quidel, May 2022.
© Fundación Omora. Used by permission.
The copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law, such as distribution, performance, and creation of derivative works.
Switch between the microcosm and macrocosm perspectives by clicking on the circles above.
From Hand Lenses to Telescopes: Exploring the Microcosm and Macrocosm in Chile’s Biocultural Laboratories
Chile is a land drawn with the rhythm of nature itself. It is a natural laboratory that invites us to look up into the macrocosm and down into the microcosm. At both extremes of this long and narrow country, science activities have a major global impact. Today, over 50 percent of the world’s astronomical observations use the telescopes of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other institutions installed in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Complementarily, at its southern end Chile established the Cape Horn International Center for Global Change Studies and Biocultural Conservation (CHIC) to investigate the microcosms, from the largest organism, planet Earth, to the smallest ones. CHIC explores diverse forms of knowledge and values to understand and protect the biosphere in the context of global socio-environmental change. This virtual exhibition enhances the integration of the sciences, arts, and humanities through a novel partnership with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, inviting visitors to be enchanted across the multiple scales of the cosmos.
About the ExhibitionAbout the authors
