Salado basin

The members of the area are dedicated to the study of applied limnology of the Salado River and shallow lakes of its watershed.  The Salado River is the main river in the province of Buenos Aires with a large basin (140,000 km2) and important as it together with the rest of the pampean region one of the main food producers of the country.

The analysis of the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the river and associated  shallow lakes is carried out in relation to both natural phenomena (floods, droughts) and contributions received from various human activities in its basin (urban effluents, agricultural activities) that can alter the quality of its waters.

This basic knowledge is essential to recognize the responses of these ecosystems to disturbances caused by the current use of land and those that occur by planned actions of hydraulic works of regulation and management that affect the main channel and its degree of connection to associated shallow lakes.

The study of the shallow lakes also includes two processes of deterioration (eutrophication and secondary salinization) produced by human activities and the search for corrective or palliative measures.

It is in our interest to analyze the possibility of reducing eutrophication in these shallow lakes by applying concepts and techniques developed in recent decades in European countries that have managed to improve the water quality of these lakes by taking advantage of that in the natural alternation of the two phases or equilibrium periods with different physicochemical and biological characteristics.

These researches are complemented by microcosm and mesocosms studies, where both aspects of trophic relationships and response from aquatic communities to anthropic impacts are simulated.