Effective management of surface waters requires a robust understanding of spatiotemporal constituent loadings from upstream sources and the uncertainty associated with these estimates. We compared the total dissolved solids loading into the Great Salt Lake (GSL) for water year 2013 with estimates of previously sampled periods in the early 1960s. We also provide updated results on GSL loading, quantitatively bounded by sampling uncertainties, which are useful for current and future management efforts. Our statistical loading results were more accurate than those from simple regression models. Our results indicate that TDS loading to the GSL in water year 2013 was 14.6 million metric tons with uncertainty ranging from 2.8 to 46.3 million metric tons, which varies greatly from previous regression estimates for water year 1964 of 2.7 million metric tons. Results also indicate that locations with increased sampling frequency are correlated with decreasing confidence intervals. Because time is incorporated into the LOADEST models, discrepancies are largely expected to be a function of temporally lagged salt storage delivery to the GSL associated with terrestrial and in-stream processes. By incorporating temporally variable estimates and statistically derived uncertainty of these estimates, we have provided quantifiable variability in the annual estimates of dissolved solids loading into the GSL. Further, our results support the need for increased monitoring of dissolved solids loading into saline lakes like the GSL by demonstrating the uncertainty associated with different levels of sampling frequency.
Great Salt Lake is the largest hypersaline lake in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth largest terminal lake in the world (Figure 1). The open water and adjacent wetlands of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem support millions of migratory waterfowl and shorebirds from throughout the Western Hemisphere [Aldrich and Paul, 2002]. In addition, the area is of important economic value: Brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) residing in Great Salt Lake support an aquaculture shrimp cyst industry with annual revenues as high as $60 million.
Density stratification in saline and hypersaline water bodies from throughout the world can have large impacts on the internal cycling and loading of salinity, nutrients, and trace elements. High temporal resolution hydroacoustic and physical/chemical data were collected at two sites in Great Salt Lake (GSL), a saline lake in the western USA, to understand how density stratification may influence salinity and mercury (Hg) distributions. The first study site was in a causeway breach where saline water from GSL exchanges with less saline water from a flow restricted bay. Near-surface-specific conductance values measured in water at the breach displayed a good relationship with both flow and wind direction. No diurnal variations in the concentration of dissolved (\0.45 lm) methylmercury (MeHg) were observed during the 24-h sampling period; however, the highest proportion of particulate Hg total and MeHg loadings was observed during periods of elevated salinity. The second study site was located on the bottom of GSL where movement of a high-salinity water layer, referred to as the deep brine layer (DBL), is restricted to a naturally occurring 1.5-km-wide ''spillway'' structure. During selected time periods in April/May, 2012, wind-induced flow reversals in a railroad causeway breach, separating Gunnison and Gilbert Bays, were coupled with high-velocity flow pulses (up to 55 cm/s) in the DBL at the spillway site. These flow pulses were likely
The Great Salt Lake is terminal, lacking outflow, and is descended from vast Lake Bonneville through evaporation. It is akin to a puddle on the tarmac with a similar surface area to volume ratio. It is an avian wildlife habitat of hemispheric importance, and lies adjacent to a metropolitan population of 2.5 million, with correspondingly increasing water demands and anthropogenic effluents. Engineered partitions spanning the lake generate density‐driven flow among the layered concentrated brines, which show dramatic vertical redox transitions and corresponding contrasts in trace element behaviors, some of which show elevated burdens in the ecosystem. We describe this system in four parts, starting with the geographic and hydrologic framework (Section 1) that determines its limnologic and hydrodynamic characteristics (Section 2) that shape its ecosystem (Section 3), which interacts dynamically with its geochemical characteristics (Section 4).
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