Synonyms
Definition
The largest and best known natural hypersaline lakes are the Great Salt Lake (Utah, USA) and the Dead Sea on the border between Israel and Jordan. The first has an ionic composition that resembles that of seawater, and the second is dominated by divalent cations (Mg2+, Ca2+) rather than by Na+. The north arm of the Great Salt Lake is currently saturated with NaCl, and its brines are colored red by dense communities of halophilic Archaea (Halobacteriaceae), while the southern part is less saline, and its prokaryotic communities are dominated by Bacteria. Conditions in the Dead Sea are currently too extreme to support extensive microbial growth. Only after extremely rainy winters are blooms of algae (Dunaliella) and red Archaea observed. Metagenomic studies in the Great Salt Lake and in the Dead Sea now enable a comparison of the biota inhabiting these two disparate hypersaline water bodies.
Introduction
Hypersaline, salt-saturated brines in lakes,...
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References
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Oren, A. (2014). Salt Lakes, Metagenomics of. In: Nelson, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Metagenomics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_42-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6418-1_42-6
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