Over the last few decades, the impact of landslides has increased in Latin America. However, there is a deficiency in the region of diagnostic studies on landslide hazards. This review analyzes the state of the art of studies on landslide hazard occurred in Latin America. A search for articles published from 2000 to 2019 was carried out in Scopus, WoS, SciELO, REDIB, and Redalyc. The search yielded 1,365 publications, which were purged obtaining 283 articles, analyzed through a database organized in four categories: general information, study area, research objectives, and methodology. We identified an increase in the number of publications from the year 2011. Seventy-five percent of the 20 countries in the region published papers on landslides that had occurred in these countries, mainly research focus on susceptibility and characterization, and a reduced number, on hazardousness, inventories, trigger factors and conditioning factors. The results suggest the opportunity to incorporate novel methods, tools, techniques, and inputs into research of landslides in Latin America. This review constitutes an analytical and critical contribution to the study of landslide hazards in the region and indicates the studies that are urgent to enforce its integral management in the region and in other intertropical zones.

Earlywood (EW) and latewood (LW) chronologies can be used to analyze seasonal climatic variation. We constructed and analyzed total ring (RW), EW, and LW ring growth in Abies religiosa and Pinus pseudostrobus trees from the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve and evaluated their climatic signal (monthly precipitation and mean average, minimum and maximum temperatures) in the growth of tree rings by correlation and response function analyses. Precipitation during October and December of the previous year and during January, February, April, and May of the year of growth had a positive influence in the growth of both P. pseudostrobus and A. religiosa. Mean maximum temperatures had a negative effect on tree growth in both species. Additionally, growth of A. religiosa was more sensitive to variations of mean, minimum, and maximum temperatures in comparison with P. pseudostrobus, and monthly mean minimum temperature was positively correlated with EW and LW series in A. religiosa. We conclude that EW and LW growth of A. religiosa and P. pseudostrobus might be reduced by lower precipitation during the winter-spring season. Consequently, in the eventuality of warmer and drier climate during the latter season as projected by climate change scenarios, growth rates of A. religiosa could become severely affected, negatively impacting the overwintering habitat of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus L.).