Why saline lakes are the canary in the coalmine for the world’s water resources

Zolghadr-Asli, Babak, Ferdowsi, Ahmad and Madani, Kaveh, (2024). Why saline lakes are the canary in the coalmine for the world’s water resources. The Conversation, n/a-n/a

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    Author Zolghadr-Asli, Babak
    Ferdowsi, Ahmad
    Madani, Kaveh
    Title Why saline lakes are the canary in the coalmine for the world’s water resources
    Appearing in The Conversation
    Publication Date 2024-07-11
    Place of Publication Melbourne
    Publisher Academic Journalism Society
    Start page n/a
    End page n/a
    Language eng
    Abstract When it comes to inland surface water bodies, saline lakes are unique. They make up 44% of all lakes worldwide and are found on every continent including Antarctica. These lakes’ existence depends on a delicate balance between a river basin’s water input (precipitation and inflows) and output (evaporation and seepage). The reason a lake turns saline is often because it doesn’t have a consistent stream outlet, leading to a build-up of dissolved salts from water inflows. The water levels of saline lakes are naturally unstable and these lakes are generally susceptible to any disturbance. This heightened sensitivity makes saline lakes more responsive than freshwater lakes to natural and human-caused factors. The main cause of change in a saline lake is disturbances in its water balance. These can be the result of natural or human-induced factors that are local, such as droughts, pollution, and upstream water diversions, or global, such as climate change, decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature. The rapid response of saline lakes to the changing conditions makes these lakes suitable candidates for reliably reflecting the regional, and potentially global, status of water resources, and revealing crucial changes in the water balance. Unsurprisingly, many of the world’s saline lakes are shrinking rapidly, a major warning about the sustainability of regional water resources.
    Keyword Climate change
    Irrigation
    Lakes
    Aral Sea
    Water resources
    Water use
    Salt Lakes
    Copyright Holder author(s)
    Copyright Year 2024
    Copyright type Creative commons
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    Created: Fri, 25 Oct 2024, 05:31:24 JST by Haideh Beigi on behalf of UNU INWEH