Conservation Specialist

Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network

Bio:

Marcela is native to Córdoba, Argentina, where she lives in Miramar de Ansenuza, a small town on the shore of Mar Chiquita Lake. She has a degree in Biology from the National University of Córdoba (UNC), where she is currently undertaking PhD studies on the non-breeding ecology of Wilson’s Phalarope in central Argentina. 

She joined the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN) Executive Office team in 2019 as a Conservation Specialist, focused on the conservation of saline lakes. Among her activities, Marcela is working on an update of the Wilson’s Phalarope conservation plan and developing a protocol for boreal winter/austral summer surveys for the species. She is also working to strengthen the connections between communities and conservation efforts at inland salt lakes, with a primary focus on existing WHSRN sites.

Title: A drop here, a drop there: Sharing lessons throughout the hemisphere

Abstract: Great Salt Lake is one of the most important sites in the Americas for migratory shorebirds, ducks and other waterbirds, with several million birds using the lake annually. In 1991, the global significance of Great Salt Lake for shorebird conservation was recognized by its designation as a site of “Hemispheric Importance” within the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN). The lake’s importance goes beyond the sheer number of birds that use its resources—it is a cornerstone of a complex ecological network of key sites for shorebirds throughout the Western Hemisphere. The loss of any one site in the network threatens the survival of the whole system.

The connectivity of Great Salt Lake was recognized early in the history of conservation efforts at the lake, when in June 1992, there was a "three-way twinning" with Laguna Mar Chiquita (Argentina) and Mono Lake (California). Both are WHSRN Sites, and share ecological similarities with Great Salt Lake, including large numbers of Wilson's Phalaropes. Further recognition of the important role of Great Salt Lake as part of a network came in 1998, when stakeholders from two additional WHSRN sites sharing species came together with Great Salt Lake to form the “Linking Communities, Wetlands and Migratory Birds Initiative” (Chaplin Lake and associated lakes in Saskatchewan, Canada, and the Marismas Nacionales complex of Nayarit, Mexico).

Unfortunately many saline lakes in the Americas (and the world) are shrinking at alarming rates, reducing shorebird habitat and economic benefits while threatening human health. Already Lago Poopó has been reduced from the second-largest lake in Bolivia to the ecological equivalent of “puddles”. Climate change is often cited as the culprit for the decline of saline lakes, and while it does represent a pervasive long-term problem for the sustainability of many saline lakes, water development in arid basins around lakes generally represents a larger and more immediate challenge.

Our talk will illustrate the linkages that connect Great Salt Lake to the rest of the hemisphere through shared migratory birds, and detail efforts to secure water and shorebird habitat at Laguna Mar Chiquita. We will also highlight a rapidly growing threat to saline lakes in the Altiplano of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, where lithium-brine extraction has the potential to leave many watersheds desiccated. Lessons-learned from Great Salt Lake—both good and bad—could be key to the sustainability of mining operations and the future of these critical wetland resources.