BookBonnie K. Baxter, Jaimi K. Butler, editors.
Summary: Great Salt Lake is an enormous terminal lake in the western United States. It is a highly productive ecosystem, which has global significance for millions of migrating birds who rely on this critical feeding station on their journey through the American west. For the human population in the adjacent metropolitan area, this body of water provides a significant economic resource as industries, such as brine shrimp harvesting and mineral extraction, generate jobs and income for the state of Utah. In addition, the lake provides the local population with ecosystem services, especially the creation of mountain snowpack that generates water supply, and the prevention of dust that may impair air quality. As a result of climate change and water diversions for consumptive uses, terminal lakes are shrinking worldwide, and this edited volume is written in this urgent context. This is the first book ever centered on Great Salt Lake biology. Current and novel data presented here paint a comprehensive picture, building on our past understanding and adding complexity. Together, the authors explore this saline lake from the microbial diversity to the invertebrates and the birds who eat them, along a dynamic salinity gradient with unique geochemistry. Some unusual perspectives are included, including the impact of tar seeps on the lake biology and why Great Salt Lake may help us search for life on Mars. Also, we consider the role of human perceptions and our effect on the biology of the lake. The editors made an effort to involve a diversity of experts on the Great Salt Lake system, but also to include unheard voices such as scientists at state agencies or non-profit advocacy organizations. This book is a timely discussion of a terminal lake that is significant, unique, and threatened.
Contents:
Chapter 1: Water Development, Consumptive Water Uses, and Great Salt Lake
Chapter 2:Climate Change and Great Salt Lake
Chapter 3: Relationships between Humans and Great Salt Lake: Dynamics of Change
Chapter 4: Microbialites of Great Salt Lake
Chapter 5: Unexpected complexity at salinity saturation: microbial diversity of the north arm of Great Salt Lake
Chapter 6: Invertebrates and phytoplankton: is salinity the driving factor?
Chapter 7: Great Salt Lake Artemia: Ecosystem Functions and Services with a Global Reach
Chapter 8: Importance of Great Salt Lake to Pelagic Birds: Eared Grebes, Phalaropes, Gulls, Ducks, and White Pelicans
Chapter 9: Great Salt Lake Shorebirds, Their Habitats and Food Base
Chapter 10: American White Pelicans of Gunnison Island, Great Salt Lake, Utah
Chapter 11: Amphibians and Reptiles of Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake, Utah
Chapter 12: Shoreline Plants of Great Salt Lake
Chapter 13: Invasive plants of Great Salt Lake wetlands: what, where, how, and why?
Chapter 14: Mercury Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification in Great Salt Lake Ecosystems
Chapter 15: The Rozel Point Tar Seeps and Their Impact on the Local Biology
Chapter 16: Great Salt Lake as an astrobiology analogue for ancient Martian hypersaline aqueous systems.