Saline lakes around the world are shrinking in size at alarming rates. But what—or who—is to blame?
Lakes like Utah’s Great Salt Lake, Asia’s Aral Sea, the Dead Sea in Jordan and Israel, China’s huge Lop Nur and Bolivia’s Lake Popo are just a few that are in peril say Utah University researchers. These lakes and others like them are suffering massive environmental problems according to a group of scientists and water managers in Utah and Montana.
Saline lakes are critically important for wildlife, industry and human health. They provide habitat for migrating birds, minerals for extractive industries and recreational opportunities, all of which are economically important. Great Salt Lake, for example, has an economic value of $1.32 billion per year.
When full, saline lakes protect nearby residents from dust storms created by the dry lakebeds. This dust causes asthma and other respiratory diseases as demonstrated after the desiccation of the Aral Sea and California’s Owens Lake. Although these lakes grow and shrink with natural climate cycles, human withdrawals of water create a persistent demand that lowers lake levels—sometimes drastically.
In the recent Nature Geoscience paper, “Decline of the world’s saline lakes,” authors Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Sarah Null, Peter Wilcock and Frank Howe of Utah State University; Craig Miller of the Utah Division of Water Resources, Justin deRose of the U.S. Forest Service, Maura Hahnenberger of Salt Lake Community College and Johnnie Moore of the University of Montana describe the dramatic effects of water use and climate change on the world’s saline lakes, dating as far back as 1300 years ago when the huge lakes of China’s Tarim Basin were dried up due to water development of Himalayan Rivers.
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