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Soda Lakes of East Africa pp 365–374Cite as

Soda Lakes of the East African Rift System: The Past, the Present and the Future

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Abstract

The soda lakes of the East African Rift System are unique water bodies whose formation, topography and locational settings have conferred upon them endorheic basin features with arid to semiarid climatic conditions. These features, together with the geological characteristics of their catchments, have favoured the development of saline alkaline properties that make them peculiar and important from a number of perspectives. Most of these lakes have extreme environmental characteristics shown by high ionic contents of their water, high temperature conditions and eutrophic states. This enables them to support growth of few tolerant species of extremophilic Cyanobacteria and other microbes. Some of these lakes such as the Lakes Nakuru and Bogoria are highly productive, yielding some of the highest primary production rates in the world. This high productivity supports hundreds of thousands to, sometimes, millions of Lesser Flamingos in these two lakes. These lakes, however, are highly vulnerable to climate changes and environmental degradation associated with human activities due to their unique environmental conditions. This paper explores some of these unique features, the threats to their existence, the challenges to their conservation and potential strategies to protect them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Egerton University, 536-20115, Egerton, Kenya

    Steve Omondi Oduor

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Embu University College, 6-60100, Embu, Kenya

    Kiplagat Kotut

Authors
  1. Steve Omondi Oduor
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  2. Kiplagat Kotut
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Correspondence to Steve Omondi Oduor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Limnology and Bio-Oceanography, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Michael Schagerl

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Oduor, S.O., Kotut, K. (2016). Soda Lakes of the East African Rift System: The Past, the Present and the Future. In: Schagerl, M. (eds) Soda Lakes of East Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28622-8_15

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