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Australian salt lakes: their history, chemistry, and biota — a review

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Abstract

A vast number of large lakes (≫ 100 km2) are typically very old features of the Australian landscape; they occupy areas which have changed little tectonically (e.g., they occupy ancient drainage systems in Western Australia or lie in deep depressions such as the Great Artesian Basin: Lake Eyre) and have not been transgressed by the sea since at least the Palaeogene. Other salt lakes, most of which are small (≪ 50 km2), have been affected morphologically during recurring glacial-interglacial cycles (e.g., lakes associated with gypsum or clay lunettes, sabkhas, pans, lakes near the coast behind barrier dunes as a result of sea-level changes) and their sedimentary records represent comparatively much shorter periods of time. There are also a number of unusually young (< 30 000 years) crater lakes, some of which are the best studied lakes in Australia.

The major ions encountered today in Australian salt lakes consist of sodium and chloride although some lakes are also calcium sulphate rich. The origin of these ions is briefly discussed. Sodium carbonate lakes are rare in Australia today. Under past climatic/hydrological conditions the chemistry of a number of lakes was apparently different.

The biota of Australian salt lakes is mostly endemic; it is highly diversified as witnessed by the crustacean fauna and is well adapted to the harsh conditions prevailing in saline water. This is the result of a long history of aridity in Australia. The characteristics of this biota are presented together with data on its distribution which is primarily related to climatic conditions.

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  1. Department of Biogeography & Geomorphology, Australian National University, P.O. Box 4, 2600, Canberra, A.C.T., Australia

    Patrick De Deckker

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De Deckker, P. Australian salt lakes: their history, chemistry, and biota — a review. Hydrobiologia 105, 231–244 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00025191

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