Flamingos in flooded shore of Mar Chiquita, Argentina

Photographer’s comment:”The photo was taken on the shore of Mar Chiquita near the town of Miramar in northern Argentina. Flooding due to climate change had inundated the shoreline causing tremendous economic loss to the communities along the lakeshore, and the rising saltwater of the lake killed the riparian vegetation. Since the flooding, irrigation withdrawals in the lake’s agricultural basin are threatening to desiccate the lake. As the lake shrinks and salinities rise, fish such as the economically important pejerrey disappear. However, high salinities allow brine shrimp to increase and supply abundant food for a variety of birds. Global climate change is expected to increase the variability of rainfall in the region, making this enclosed inland sea’s ecological productivity even less predictable. Consequently, irrigation and land use, coupled with global climate change, will have huge impacts on the lake’s level and the sustainability of this important aquatic ecosystem.

Background story: I was living in Miramar for three months to teach a short-course on aquatic ecology and to do some research on the lake. In the evenings I would ride my bicycle along the gravel roads bordering the lake. This photo was taken as I crouched behind some ruins of a ranch house that had been completely destroyed when the lake rose to its highest recorded level in the 1980s.“