Calculating salt loads to Great Salt Lake and the associated uncertainties for water year 2013; updating a 48 year old standard

Abstract

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.

Is There a Relationship between Lake Urmia Saline Lakebed Emissions and Wet Deposition Composition in the Caucasus Region?

“…(3) S2. The most abundant ions were Ca 2+ (21%), Cl − (21%), SO 4 2− (19%), Na + (17%), and NO 3 − (14%). The least abundant inorganic ions after the previous five were Mg 2+ (4%), K + (2%), NH 4 + (0.5%), NO 2 − (0.3%), and Br − (0.07%).…”

“…Development in the regions surrounding large water bodies, such as dam construction, has led to devastating impacts on the ecosystems that depend on that water. The phenomenon of desiccation has been reported for many important water bodies across the globe, including the Great Salt Lake and Owens Lake (USA), Aral Sea (Uzbekistan–Kazakhstan), and Lake Hamoun (Iran). ,− Lake Urmia in northwest Iran is one of the largest saline lakes in the world and has been experiencing drastic water decline (>6 m) since 1999. ,− Lake desiccation is associated with increased water salinity as well as the exposure of easily erodible sandy soil that is bare of vegetation, which promotes increased primary aerosol emissions. − Previous studies have shown that floodplains, alluvial fans, sand dunes, ephemeral lakes, and river beds − that contain bare-silty-sandy soil types (i.e., saline, fluvo-aquic, and desert soils) are particularly vulnerable to wind erosion and are associated with extreme atmospheric dust events impacting nearby regions. The extent and impacts of emissions from the Lake Urmia lakebed and bordering areas are topics of extensive research , with a less studied aspect being the wet deposition composition of the region.…”

“…Sulfate and NO 3 − were the dominant ions in both the arid south-western United States 79 and Mexico City. 80 In coastal southeastern Florida, Na + , Cl − , SO 4 2− , and NO 3 − were the dominant ions in wet deposition. 81 In the recent study of Ma et al 47 comparing wet deposition across nine diverse global sites, it is shown that the combined amount of Na + and Cl − exceeded that of other ions with the exception of a free tropospheric site in Hawaii and Manila, Philippines, which was due to high levels of nonmarine sources in the latter two sites.…”

A Statistical Technique for Modelling Dissolved Oxygen in Salt Lakes

“…TDS caused oxygen depletion in Sawa Lake, mainly during summer conditions. Shope and Angeroth (2015) reported same depletion situation in Great Salt Lake, US. The DO started dropping on June and recovered on November, keeping around the same value during the rest of the year approximately.…”

“…Concerns that future changes of climate or management may affect the lake water quality have promoted the need for modeling the lake for future predictions. Shope and Angeroth (2015) highlighted the need for more monitoring of dissolved oxygen in salt lakes statistically. Salt lakes represent about 45% of the total inland lake volume (Shiklomanov, 1990), and they are used as a source for water supply especially in regions of dry/hot weather and low groundwater level.…”