‘Impact of changing water levels on the Iberá marshlands (Argentina)’

Adrián Santiago Di Giacomo, Alicia Susana Guadalupe Poi, Andrés Cózar Cabañas, Antonio Tognazzi, Arduino Massimo Dattilo, Carlos García Jiménez, Claudio Rossi, Diego Ruiz Moreno, Fidel Echevarria Navas, Graciela Ana Canziani, José Ángel Gálvez Lorente, Juan José Neiff, Luca Bracchini, Paula Federico, Rosana Ferrati, Steven Arthur Loiselle, Sylvina Lorena Casco.

The biggest threat the Iberá marshes now face is the rising level of water. Increases of 60% (80cm) with respect to the historical level have been ascribed in various studies to the construction and filling of the Yacyretá hydroelectric dam, located to the north of the marshlands along the River Paraná. Despite strong pointers to the existence of an underground channel between Iberá and Yacyretá, the situation could be seriously aggravated by the government’s decision to raise the levels of the dam from the current 76m to 83m.

This project will initiate scientific monitoring of the marshland coinciding with the increase in the level of the Yacyretá reservoir. It will also use a multidisciplinary modelistic approach to measure a physical factor like water level against a complex biological factor like biodiversity, in the interest of developing optimal conservation strategies.