Global ecosystem typology

Alternative site for the Global ecosystem typology with additional information for ecosystem profiles and indicative maps.

This site is maintained by jrfep

F2.6 Permanent salt and soda lakes

Biome: F2. Lakes biome

Contributors:
(texts)

These lakes are usually large and shallow in semi-arid regions, with high concentrations of salts, mediated by inflows of water. Their productivity from growth of algae and plants can support large numbers, but low diversity of organisms equipped with tolerance to high salinity and other solutes. They have relatively simple foodwebs, with high numbers of microbes and plankton, crustaceans, insect larvae, fish and specialised waterbirds such as flamingos.

Key Features

Permanent waterbodies with high inorganic solute concentrations (particularly sodium), supporting simple trophic networks, including cyanobacteria and algae, invertebrates and specialist birds.

Overview of distribution

Mostly in semi-arid regions of Africa, southern Australia, Eurasia, Europe and western North and South America.

Profile versions

  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): RT Kingsford; DA Keith
  • v2.0 (2020-05-24): RT Kingsford; JT Hollibaugh; B Robson; R Harper; DA Keith
  • v2.01 ():
  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): RT Kingsford; JT Hollibaugh; B Robson; R Harper; DA Keith Full profile available at official site

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

  • Humayoun SB, Bano N, Hollibaugh JT (2003) Depth distribution of microbial diversity in Mono Lake, a meromictic soda lake in California Applied and environmental microbiology 69:1030-1042 DOI:10.1128/aem.69.2.1030-1042.2003

  • Williams WD (1998) Salinity as a determinant of the structure of biological communities in salt lakes Hydrobiologia 381:191-201

  • Boros E, Kolpakova M (2018) A review of the defining chemical properties of soda lakes and pans: An assessment on a large geographic scale of Eurasian inland saline surface waters PLoSONE 13(8):e0202205

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of F2.6 Permanent salt and soda lakes. See general notes on diagrams. Open image full size.

Maps

Maps are indicative of global distribution patterns are not intended to represent fine-scale patterns. The maps show areas of the world containing major (coloured red) or minor occurrences (coloured yellow) of each ecosystem functional group. See general notes on maps.

There are 2 alternative versions of the indicative map for this functional group, please compare description and sources below.

F2.6.IM.mix_v4.0

Datasets

  • HydroLAKES-1.0
  • FEOW-2008
  • Saline-lake-list
  • CRU-TS-v4

Map references

  • Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016) Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach Nature Communications 13603 DOI:10.1038/ncomms13603

  • Abell R, Thieme ML, Revenga C, Bryer M, Kottelat M, Bogutskaya N, Coad B, Mandrak N, Contreras Balderas S, Bussing W, Stiassny MLJ, Skelton P, Allen GR, Unmack P, Naseka A, Ng R, Sindorf N, Robertson J, Armijo E, Higgins JV, Heibel TJ, Wikramanayake E, Olson D, López HL, Reis RE, Lundberg JG, Sabaj Pérez MH, Petry P (2008) Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation, BioScience 58: 403–414. DOI:10.1641/B580507

  • Wurtsbaugh, W., Miller, C., Null, S. et al. Decline of the world’s saline lakes. Nature Geoscience 10, 816–821 (2017). 10.1038/ngeo3052

  • Harris, I., Jones, P.D., Osborn, T.J. and Lister, D.H. (2014), Updated high-resolution grids of monthly climatic observations - the CRU TS3.10 Dataset. International Journal of Climatology 34, 623-642 doi:10.1002/joc.3711 Revised appendix

F2.6.web.mix_v4.0

Major occurrences were compliled from a list of known salt lakes in Wurtsbaugh et al. (2017) and augmented by authors, then matched with names in the HydroLAKES database to identify natural lakes (types 1 and 3 of Messager et al. 2016). Minor occurrences were mapped within arid and semi-arid parts of selected freshwater ecoregions (Abell et al. 2008) by clipping ecoregions to exclude areas with mean annual rainfall >250mm (Harris et al. 2014a). Freshwater ecoregions (Abell et al. 2008) were selected if they contained occurrences of permanent salt or soda lakes if: i) their descriptions mentioned features consistent with those identified in the profile of the Ecosystem Functional Group; and ii) if their location was consistent with the ecological drivers described in the profile. Occurrences were aggregated to 10 minutes spatial resolution. Open image full size.

Datasets

  • FEOW-2008
  • Saline-lake-list
  • CRU-TS-v4
  • HydroLAKES-1.0

Map references

  • Abell R, Thieme ML, Revenga C, Bryer M, Kottelat M, Bogutskaya N, Coad B, Mandrak N, Contreras Balderas S, Bussing W, Stiassny MLJ, Skelton P, Allen GR, Unmack P, Naseka A, Ng R, Sindorf N, Robertson J, Armijo E, Higgins JV, Heibel TJ, Wikramanayake E, Olson D, López HL, Reis RE, Lundberg JG, Sabaj Pérez MH, Petry P (2008) Freshwater ecoregions of the world: A new map of biogeographic units for freshwater biodiversity conservation, BioScience 58: 403–414. DOI:10.1641/B580507

  • Wurtsbaugh, W., Miller, C., Null, S. et al. Decline of the world’s saline lakes. Nature Geoscience 10, 816–821 (2017). 10.1038/ngeo3052

  • Harris, I., Jones, P.D., Osborn, T.J. and Lister, D.H. (2014), Updated high-resolution grids of monthly climatic observations - the CRU TS3.10 Dataset. International Journal of Climatology 34, 623-642 doi:10.1002/joc.3711 Revised appendix

  • Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016) Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach Nature Communications 13603 DOI:10.1038/ncomms13603

Back to: Realm overview / Freshwater Realm / Biome overview / F2. Lakes biome
Check: the Glossary / Profile structure / the public document