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

F2.7 Ephemeral salt lakes

Biome: F2. Lakes biome

Contributors:
(texts)

Ephemeral salt lakes in semi-arid and arid regions are shallow, with extreme variation in salinity during wet-dry cycles that limits life to a low diversity of specialised salt-tolerant species. The lakes are dry and salt-encrusted most of the time, but episodic inundation dilutes salt, allowing high growth of algae and larger plants which support crustaceans, insect larvae, fish and specialist waterbirds. These species use dormant life stages to survive drying, or disperse rapidly to other habitats when the lake dries.

Key Features

Salt lakes with salt crusts in long dry phases and short productive wet phases. Trophic networks are simple but high productivity is driven by bacteria and phytoplankton, supporting specialist birds.

Overview of distribution

Mostly in arid and semi-arid Africa, Eurasia, Australia and North and South America.

Profile versions

  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): RT Kingsford; DA Keith
  • v2.0 (2020-06-18): RT Kingsford; JT Hollibaugh; K Irvine; R Harper; DA Keith
  • v2.01 ():
  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): RT Kingsford; JT Hollibaugh; K Irvine; R Harper; DA Keith Full profile available at official site

Main references

Selected references for this functional group:

  • Seaman MT, Ashton PJ, Williams WD (1991) Inland salt waters of southern Africa Hydrobiologia 210: 75-91

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

  • McCulloch G., Aebischer A,Irvine, K (2003) Satellite tracking of flamingos in southern Africa: the importance of small wetlands for management and conservation Oryx 37, 480–483

Diagrammatic assembly model

Diagrammatic assembly model of F2.7 Ephemeral salt 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.

F2.7.IM.mix_v1.0

Datasets

  • HydroAtlas-1.0
  • GSW-1.1
  • GLWD-2004
  • HydroLAKES-1.0

Map references

  • Linke, S., Lehner, B., Ouellet Dallaire, C., Ariwi, J., Grill, G., Anand, M., Beames, P., Burchard-Levine, V., Maxwell, S., Moidu, H., Tan, F., Thieme, M. (2019) Global hydro-environmental sub-basin and river reach characteristics at high spatial resolution Scientific Data 6: 283 DOI:10.1038/s41597-019-0300-6

  • Pekel JF, Cottam A, Gorelick N, Belward AS (2016) High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes Nature 540, 418-422 DOI:10.1038/nature20584

  • Lehner, B. and Döll, P. (2004): Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. Journal of Hydrology 296/1-4: 1-22. Data-set

  • 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

F2.7.web.mix_v1.0

Location of ephemeral lakes was taken from global lake databases (Lehner and Döll 2004; types 1 and 3 from Messager et al. 2016), intersected with estimates of ephemeral surface water (classes 9 and 10 from Pekel et al. 2016) and the distribution of arid and semi-arid, endorheic basins (Linke et al. 2019). Occurrences were aggregated to 10 minutes spatial resolution. Occurrences were aggregated to 10 minutes spatial resolution. Open image full size.

Datasets

  • HydroAtlas-1.0
  • HydroLAKES-1.0
  • GSW-1.1
  • GLWD-2004

Map references

  • Linke, S., Lehner, B., Ouellet Dallaire, C., Ariwi, J., Grill, G., Anand, M., Beames, P., Burchard-Levine, V., Maxwell, S., Moidu, H., Tan, F., Thieme, M. (2019) Global hydro-environmental sub-basin and river reach characteristics at high spatial resolution Scientific Data 6: 283 DOI:10.1038/s41597-019-0300-6

  • 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

  • Pekel JF, Cottam A, Gorelick N, Belward AS (2016) High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes Nature 540, 418-422 DOI:10.1038/nature20584

  • Lehner, B. and Döll, P. (2004): Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. Journal of Hydrology 296/1-4: 1-22. Data-set

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