This story was originally Appears on Upland News and be part of Climate table cooperation.
Last summer, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed dust blow 85 miles from its source, Lake Abert and Lake Summer, two dry salt lakes in southern Oregon. This has happened before: Saline lake beds are some of the West’s most important sources of dust. California’s Owens Lake is the nation’s largest source of PM10, microscopic pollutants found in dust and smoke, while plumes of smoke billowing from 800 square miles of the Great Salt Lake bed have caused hurricanes. Toxic dust storm in Salt Lake City.
Saltwater lakes are rapidly losing water due to climate change and agricultural and urban uses, becoming one of the West’s most threatened ecosystems. Now, the new law is providing some support. On December 27, President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan agreement Salt Lake Ecosystems in the Major Basin States Program Act, which allocates $25 million in funding for research and monitoring in saltwater lakes throughout the Great Basin. While this funding is an important step, it cannot give the lakes what they really need: more water.
The interior of the West has many salt lakes, created when snow melts in the valley bottoms of the Basin and Range. The valleys have no outflow, so the water remains until it evaporates, leaving particles suspended in them. These build up over time, giving the lakes high salinity.
“It creates a unique system of support,” said Ryan Houston, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association, which seeks to preserve Oregon’s high deserts, including Summer Lake and Lake Abert. brine shrimp and alkaline flies. .
However, this balance of runoff, salt, and evaporation also makes saltwater lakes very sensitive to climate change. Reduced snow cover and increased evaporation as higher temperatures mean less water in the lakes and higher salt concentrations. That puts stress on shrimp and flies, which have adapted over time to specific salinities, and causes lake beds to dry out, creating dangerous dust storms.
Decades of diversion for agricultural use and the city have also taken water from the lakes. California’s Lake Owens, for example, has been virtually dry for nearly a century since its water was diverted to Los Angeles. One Report released this month by Utah scientists and conservation organizations have warned that a combination of water diversion and climate change has caused the Great Salt Lake to tend to disappear within five years.
Many people consider poor air quality to be the main reason for saving lakes. But dust is a sign that the entire ecosystem is drying up. The saltwater lakes are a major stop on the Pacific Flyway, a bird’s migratory route that extends from Alaska to Patagonia, Chile. “Our worry about dust tells me that we have come a long way from the point where Lake Abert is lost as part of the Pacific Flyway, its most important ecological value,” Houston said. More than 80 species of birds or habitat or migrate across Lake Abert, and 338 species depend on the Great Salt Lake.
