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Dr Salgado is a renowned academic staff member at the Department of Geography, specialising in freshwater ecology, landscape ecology and palaeoecology in both tropical and temperate freshwater ecosystems.
- More about Dr Salgado
Employment
- Lecturer, UCL (2022-)
- Lecturer (2020-2023), Universidad Católica de Colombia.
- Lecturer, Universidad de Los Andes (2017-2019)
- Post-doctoral Research Assistant, University of Nottingham, (2020-2022)
- Post-doctoral Research Assistant, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), (2019).
- Post-doctoral Research Assistant, Universidad de Los Andes-Minciencias, (2015-2017).
- Post-doctoral Research Assistant, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), (2013).
- Post-doctoral Research Assistant, UCL (2012-2013)
Education
- 2007-2012, PhD, Physical Geography, University College London (UCL) & Natural History Museum London, London, UK.
- 2005-2006, MSc, MSc in Freshwater and Coastal Sciences (Distinction), UCL & Queen Mary University (QMAU), London, UK.
- 1998-2004, BSc Biology, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Other positions
- Associate Researcher, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama.
Fellowships
- Postdoctoral fellowship 2020-2022. Project: Living Deltas Hub; University of Nottingham, UK
- Research Fellowship 2022. Project: Environmental degradation in tropical rivers and the carbon cycle: contemporary and paleolimnological perspectives- PHASE I; Universidad Católica de Colombia, Colombia
- Research Fellowship 2021. Project: Hydrological dynamics in floodplains associated with the Magdalena River complex and its relationship with aquatic communities: contemporary and paleolimnological perspectives; Universidad Católica de Colombia, Colombia
- Research Fellowship 2020. Project: The role of protected areas within the Panama Canal to preserve aquatic biodiversity; Universidad Católica de Colombia. Colombia
- Latin American Scholar Fellowship 2018. Project: The role of protected areas within the Panama Canal to preserve aquatic biodiversity; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama.
- Postdoctoral Fellowship 2015-2017. Project: Anthropogenic perturbations on freshwater ecosystems during the Anthropocene: a palaeolimnological and contemporary perspective; Colciencias-Universidad de Los Andes.
- Postdoctoral Fellowship 2013. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama
- Research Fellowship 2014-2016. Project: “Dispersal and biodiversity impacts on community assembly and ecosystem services in shallow lake landscapes” Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services; Natural Environment Research Council-NERC (ID: NE/K015486/1.), UK.
- Research Fellowship 2008. Hugh Cary Gilson Memorial Award, Freshwater Biological Association, UK
- Teaching
I teach on the following modules:
Undergraduate
- Ecological Patterns and Processes (GEOG0020)
- Thinking Geographically II (GEOG0012)
- Environmental Consequences of Human Activity (GEOG0170)
Postgraduate
- Publications
To view Dr Salgado's publications, please visit UCL Profiles:
- Research Interests
I am a member of the Environmental Change and Biodiversity (RECB) research cluster, and my work focuses on tropical and temperate freshwater ecosystems. I am interested in understanding and reconstructing the combined impacts of environmental change, land-use change, invasive species, and hydrological regulation on freshwater ecosystems at a landscape and long-term (decades-centuries) scales.
Some examples of my current research include:
The role of hydrological connectivity and eutrophication in influencing lake biodiversity in space and time
Here, we want to understand how eutrophication interacts with connectivity to influence aquatic communities at the landscape scale, and how such interactions change over time (decades to centuries).
Key related papers:
- Eutrophication erodes inter-basin variation in macrophytes and co-occurring invertebrates in a shallow lake: combining ecology and palaeoecology
- Eutrophication homogenizes shallow lake macrophyte assemblages over space and time
- Data from: Connectivity and zebra mussel invasion offer short‐term buffering of eutrophication impacts on floodplain lake landscape biodiversity
Paleoecology of the Panama Canal
When tropical rivers are dammed, the immediate impacts are relatively well studied, but the long-term (decades-centuries) consequences of impoundment remain poorly known. This project focuses on the formation of Gatun Lake (Panama Canal, Central America) through the damming of the Chagres River in 1913 to examine the long-term ecological and socio-economic consequences of impoundment on the Chagres River and Gatun Lake ecosystem over a period of more than 100 years.
Key related paper:
Causes and consequences of recent degradation of the Magdalena River basin, Colombia
The Magdalena River in Colombia is a woefully understudied ecosystem relative to its critical importance to Colombia's economy, culture, and biodiversity compared with other similarly sized tropical rivers. By documenting the anthropogenic stressors impacting the river on time scales ranging from centuries to decades, we aim to provide the missing information on baseline conditions, and the effects of human activities on the aquatic system, and assist management initiatives.
Key related papers:
- Causes and consequences of recent degradation of the Magdalena River basin, Colombia
- River connectivity and climate behind the long-term evolution of tropical American floodplain lakes
Human impact on carbon cycling in tropical freshwater ecosystems
Regional patterns in carbon cycling and relationships with other abiotic factors in densely populated and rapidly developing tropical regions are still poorly constrained. We focus on representative river systems influenced by human activities from Southeast Asia (e.g., Red River) and Tropical America (e.g., Magdalena River and Panama Canal) to consolidate a better understanding of carbon cycling processes operating across long spatial and temporal scales.
Key related paper:
The potential benefits of land protection schemes in protecting native aquatic species from river damming and species invasion
River damming often provides ideal opportunities for the colonization and spread of aquatic invasive alien species, threatening native wildlife, and requiring costly remediation. By combining contemporary monitoring data with palaeoecological data, we test the idea that protected land in a reservoir’s watershed can promote the survival of native aquatic species by increasing habitat complexity for species’ coexistence while also limiting colonization of alien invasive plants.
Responses of Andean lakes to natural climatic variation and indigenous and post-European occupation
By using lake sediment records from mountain lakes in Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Guatemala, we seek to provide information on how the lakes have responded over time to natural climatic variation compared to human-induced processes.
Key related papers:
- Impact
My work seeks to contribute towards current debates on freshwater biodiversity declines and the long-term and spatial causes of this decline. My research also generates a significant impact by providing new information towards an improved understanding of how temperate and tropical river and lake systems function and how they are changing in response to the spread of invasive species, water pollution, river regulation, urbanisation, and climate change.
Our work in the Upper Lough Erne, N. Ireland has helped, for instance, to inform lake conservation and management in response to increasing eutrophication and the invasion of zebra mussels.
By collaborating with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, our work on the Panama Canal has not only provided baseline conditions but also demonstrated the need to address long-term ecosystem structural drivers such as river flow, runoff patterns, land-use change, and physical-chemical conditions to preserve the natural riverine system functioning. New results are also bringing exciting new information on the potential benefits that land protection schemes within an impoundment river system catchment can have in preserving the native aquatic flora while buffering the spread of invasive aquatic plants across the reservoir.
Outreach
To increase the outreach of our research results beyond academia and achieve freshwater practical conservation action and policy, I collaborate with international and local research institutions and artists who produce cartoons, graphics, and videos to communicate scientific messages.
An example of a short video showing how Andean lakes have been responding over time to natural and human-induced processes can be seen on the University of Regina YouTube channel:
YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeyFAY0Gv6M For an example of a non-scientific and illustrative communication piece of work visit the Eurek Alert website.
