Great Salt Lake Biology
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Great Salt Lake Biology
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.
Extremophiles as Astrobiological Models
The data in this book are new or updated, and will serve also as Origin of Life and evolutionary studies. Endospores of bacteria have a long history of use as model organisms in astrobiology, including survival in extreme environments and interplanetary transfer of life. Numerous other bacteria as well as archaea, lichens, fungi, algae and tiny animals (tardigrades, or water bears) are now being investigated for their tolerance to extreme conditions in simulated or real space environments. Experimental results from exposure studies on the International Space Station and space probes for up to 1.5 years are presented and discussed. Suggestions for extaterrestrial energy sources are also indicated. Audience Researchers and graduate students in microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology and astrobiology, as well as anyone interested in the search for extraterrestrial life and its technical preparations.
Saline Lakes
Author: John M. Melack
language: en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date: 2013-04-18
Inland saline waters are threatened worldwide by diversion and pollution of their inflows, introductions of exotic species and economic development of these ecologically valuable habitats. Since 1979 a series of international symposia on inland saline waters has served to strengthen and expand the scope of limnological research on inland saline waters. The seventh conference continued this tradition and the papers derived from the conference focused on the ecology of microbial communities, the influence of habitat geochemistry on biogeography of flora and fauna, physical and geochemical processes, and the conservation of inland saline waters. Of particular note are papers on Walker Lake, Nevada (USA), and the Salton Sea and Mono Lake, California (USA). Continued local, national and international efforts are required to inform the public and decision-makers about the environmental problems faced by saline waters. The papers in this volume will serve this end and should be of interest to aquatic ecologists, limnologists, aquaculturalists, and water resource managers.