A new national park at Laguna Mar Chiquita, Argentina, brings communities together from across the hemisphere to celebrate phalaropes and saline lakes

Wilson’s phalaropes feeding and molting at Mono Lake, California, as they prepare for their migratory journey to Argentina. Photo by Ryan Carle.

I recently journeyed to Laguna Mar Chiquita, Argentina, the largest saline lake in the Americas, to celebrate saline lakes, phalaropes, and the shared connections of saline lake communities throughout the western hemisphere. I was joined by a team of saline lake lovers from Mono Lake, California, where I grew up and currently work on phalarope conservation with Oikonos. Amid the whirlwind of activities, speakers, and adventures, a quote that stuck with me the most, and summed the whole thing up, was from my colleague Marcela Castellino of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. Marcela, speaking to the whole gathering, said “Why do we have such an international focus in our work to protect saline lakes and shorebirds? It’s because the shorebirds demand that we work together.”

Indeed, the more than 50 people gathered from Argentina and the U.S. had been brought together by the demands of the Wilson’s phalarope, a dainty and unique shorebird that traverses the length of the Americas, specializing on saline lake habitat. After breeding in south-central Canada and the north-central U.S., phalaropes embark on an epic migration. First they stop at hyper-saline lakes like Mono Lake, Great Salt Lake, and Lake Abert to fuel up on alkali flies, doubling their body weight for a non-stop 4,000-mile flight to South America. They arrive exhausted on the coast of Ecuador, where they refuel, head to high Andean saline lagoons, and finally continue on to lowland saline lakes in Argentina. A “final” destination of this cycle is Laguna Mar Chiquita, a massive saline lake in Argentina’s Córdoba province. Mar Chiquita, also called Ansenuza, is similar in size to Great Salt Lake, and 14 times larger than Mono Lake. At Mar Chiquita, phalaropes find abundant invertebrate prey, and cavort with thousands of Chilean flamingos.

Wilson’s phalaropes flocking at Mono Lake, California. Photo by Andrew Youssef.

Alongside this inspiring ecological story is a wonderful social story of communities coming together to help the phalaropes and protect saline lakes. Saline lakes worldwide are threatened by a double-whammy of diversion of their freshwater inputs for human uses and a drying climate. Great Salt Lake is in the news right now because it teeters on the edge of ecological disaster. Having lost more than 50% of its water volume, its salinity is now so extreme that it threatens even its salt-specialized invertebrates, brine shrimp and alkali flies. These invertebrates, of course, are the food staple that birds like the phalaropes and grebes depend on. Great Salt Lake is not unique, and similar issues threaten Mono Lake, Lake Abert, Laguna Mar Chiquita, high Andean lagoons, and many other saline lakes.

Marcela Castellino, staff of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network and Laguna Mar Chiquita local, presenting a declaration of the three-way sister lake designation of Laguna Mar Chiquita, Mono Lake, and Great Salt Lake.

Amid this worrisome backdrop, the human communities of Laguna Mar Chiquita and Mono Lake have greatly deepened their connections in recent years. In 2019, the International Phalarope Working Group was kicked off with a meeting at Mono Lake, attended by people from five countries, including Chile, Paraguay and Argentina. Since then, I have ventured to the remote corners of the Chilean Andes to survey phalaropes, and my colleague Marcela Castellino, who grew up at Mar Chiquita, has joined me on phalarope surveys at Mono Lake (where I grew up!). The biggest triumph to date was the declaration by Argentina of Ansenuza National Park at Laguna Mar Chiquita in 2022.  This much anticipated protection, after years of hard work by Aves Argentinas, Natura Argentina, and others, to make it happen, prompted a celebratory event this December at Mar Chiquita. We also celebrated the 30^th anniversary of the three-way sisterhood designation of Great Salt Lake, Mono Lake, and Laguna Mar Chiquita by WHSRN.

The dedication ceremony for the new mural in Mingamar, Argentina, depicting the migration of the Wilson’s phalarope between saline lakes. The mural was painted by artist Franco Cervato.

It’s hard to describe how great this event was. But here is a good anecdote of how above and beyond our hosts went to make this a special celebration. To arrive to Mar Chiquita, we embarked on a 2-hour bus ride from the city of Cordoba with our visiting crew from North America (composed of staff of the Mono Lake Committee, the U.S. Forest Service, and California State Parks). When after much anticipation, we arrived in the small town of Miramar, on the shores of Mar Chiquita, the first thing we saw as we rolled into town on our bus was a spectacular mural, just finished that day! The beautiful mural visualized the migration of the Wilson’s phalarope between saline lakes, showing the migratory connections between Great Salt Lake, Mono Lake, and Mar Chiquita. This mural was on the side of a two story hotel and totally beautiful, and our hosts had kept it secret until we got there! Nearly immediately, plans were hatched to create a similar mural at Mono Lake.

Our hosts Fundacion Lideres de Ansenuza, WHSRN, and Aves Argentinas continued to amaze us the next three days as we visiting many sites on Mar Chiquita, participated in forums with local parks, NGO, and government officials, and got to experience a taste of the fabulous Experiencia Ambientalia education program. Experienia Ambientalia is an Argentina-wide program engaging teenage youth to learn about environmental issues and science through a series of challenges over the course of the year. The thirty highest scoring students were rewarded with the opportunity to come to Mar Chiquita where they adventured, learned, shared their work with the North American visitors, and had lot of fun! This impressive program is also working to link youth in Argentina with youth in towns near Great Salt Lake and Mono Lake.

The visiting team from North America mingling with the Argentinian high school students from the Experiencia Ambientalia education program. Photo by Erin Cooper.

Ryan swimming in Laguna Mar Chiquita. Photo by Janet Carle.

Among the many places we saw and stories we shared over this week, a highlight was swimming in Mar Chiquita with the whole crew from Mono Lake. It felt just like swimming in Mono Lake, which is a pretty unique experience. Just like at Mono Lake or Great Salt Lake, you float super easily and are surrounded by clouds of brine shrimp. Just like at Mono Lake, Wilson’s phalaropes periodically fly by in small flocks as you peacefully float. Happily, Mar Chiquita was much warmer than Mono Lake!

Ryan flying over Laguna Mar Chiquita and searching for phalaropes! Photo by Nora Livingston.

Flying over Mar Chiquita in a four-seater plane provided some excellent perspective on its size. You cannot see the other side from the ground, or from a plane. I estimated flocks of about 40,000 phalaropes on our flight, and incredible numbers of flamingos in the tens of thousands as well. My counts were very unofficial, but my colleagues at Aves Argentinas, WHSRN, and Natura Argentina are doing monthly standardized aerial surveys for phalaropes. Despite Mar Chiquitas’ immensity, from a plane you could also see that the lake is currently very low, with huge exposed playas on the north end. Dry, dusty flats are a familiar site from other saline lakes, like Mono Lake and Owen’s Lake, where lowered water levels cause dust storms and air pollution. A major island where flamingos nest had also become land-locked, similar to the gull nesting islands at Great Salt Lake and Mono Lake. Despite these evident issues, Laguna Mar Chiquita was glowing, alive, still very much present and immense—and newly protected as a national park, which will help ensure that its water and wildlife are protected.

The aerial view of Laguna Mar Chiquita. It is so immense that you cannot see to the other side. The birds in left of this photo are a large flock of Chilean flamingos. Photo by Ryan Carle.

There were too many lovely experiences, learning, and connections to share in this short article, but know that the sisterhood of communities between Laguna Mar Chiquita and Mono Lake has just become much deeper and stronger. Over shared yerba mate, birding, and Argentina’s World Cup wins, we formed friendships and shared stories of our work and passion to protect saline lakes. Know that there are some very inspiring people working on behalf of shorebirds and saline lakes in South America—the migratory phalaropes are in good hands in their southern range.

Part of the delegation visiting Laguna Mar Chiquita, including staff from Oikonos, the U.S. Forest Service, California State Parks, Aves Argentinas, and WHSRN, at Laguna Mar Chiquita.

Despite all these connections, protecting saline lakes is an immense challenge. It will not be easy to keep the network of lakes alive that the phalaropes need to survive. We need each other to keep this work up. Knowing that the birds, and us, have allies at the far end of the Americas gives us hope and momentum to keep up the efforts to share the story of saline lakes, to keep doing the nitty gritty science, policy work, fundraising, and advocacy to keep these lakes alive. The phalaropes have demanded that we work together to save their homes; what a blessing for us that they did!

The sun setting over Laguna Mar Chiquita. Photo by Ryan Carle.

December 21, 2022
By Ryan Carle, Oikonos Science Director