LAKE SALINITY

Stop along the shoulder about 3-4 miles along the Syracuse-Antelope Island Causeway. Walk down to the beach and look around.  If you're brave you might even taste the water. Depending on whether this is a high or low-water year, the salinity can be as low as 5% or as high as 27% particularly in the northern arm of the lake. In fact, the Great Salt Lake can be almost 8 times as salty as the ocean! Read more about Salinity and Water Quality issues at the USGS website. 

Below are some photos from a biological fieldtrip from Westminster College to the northern arm of the lake--note the scum on the shore and the reddish/pink water from the algae and other water-quality changes.  You may also find of interest the Great Salt Lake Playa Project by Ty Harrison's students of Westminster College. Several other modules are contained including, e.g. Great Salt Lake Hydrological Model, Greasewood, Halophyte Belt Transect, Saltgrass, Iodinebush, Pickleweed, Snowy Plover.

As mentioned before the Great Salt Lake is a terminal lake. Fresh water entering the lake from the Bear, Jordan, and Weber river drainage systems carries salts that have been dissolved from rocks and soils along the way. After the water enters the lake it only has two ways out--by evaporation or seepage. When the water evaporates, the salts remain in the lake. This is a good place to test the salinity on either side of the causeway. One uses a hydrometer--a thermometer-like device that you insert into a large beaker filled with lake water. The greater the salinity, the higher the hydrometer will float.

 

WATER RESOURCE LINKS: Explore the USGS Ground Water Atlas as well as the Utah Water Atlas . They are both excellent online resources that focus on many important physical, ecological, and hydrological characteristics of the Basin and Range or Great Basin Region region. See also The Great Salt Lake Story: An Interdisciplinary Activity Guide, by Sandra Zicus, Utah Museum of Natural History, 1995.  THE BEACH: Walk along the beach. Note the strand lines left by changing lake levels from evaporation and wave action as indicated by the debris on the beach. See again the photo of the students on the beach.

BRINE SHRIMP, FLIES, ALGAE, BACTERIA:

Look closer at what is in the water.  Do you see the differences on either side of the causeway in terms of turbidity, color, and organisms floating on the water or growing and living in it. 

Look closer at the debris--note the brine fly tubes that are left over from the pupae stage--these are former houses for the organisms.  Learn more from a Westminster College student project by Leslie Jones entitled: TWO AQUATIC INSECTS OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE ; THE BRINE FLY AND CORIXID BUG  (WATER BOATMAN) 

There are also Bacteria in the lake (see a student project by Jacquelyn Rouillard )  that are very important parts of the Great Salt Lake Playa Food Web.    See student projects from Westminster College of Salt Lake City done Fall 1998 in a course by Ty Harrison a biological ecologist at Westminster College of Salt Lake City. 
 

Along the beach you can see algae, pebbles and sand as well as small rocks and other materials sorted by wave action.  Learn more from a student project by Jennifer Hatch entitled: The Great Salt Lake Algae

Note the reddish scum floating on the lake in some places. Use a microscope or hand-lense to look closer. What is it?

Learn more about Brine Shrimp about the Great Salt Lake Brown Gold Rush from the USGS online materials! Also check out a Westminster College student project by Nghia Nguyen entitled: The Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp. There are also great USGS webpages dealing with birds, recreation, hydrology and the salt industry.

Continue along the causeway about 3 more miles past the marina to the EGG ISLAND parking lot and walk out to the OVERLOOK! 

• See this ANTELOPE ISLAND MAP which you can purchase from  the UGS (Utah Geological Survey) DNR Bookstore and Map source - State of Utah or the Antelope Island Visitor Center - see other sites here.
  
• Get the Booklet: Geology & Antelope Island State Park, Utah, 1988. Other maps are listed in the Great Salt Lake Map Exercise. UGS (Utah Geological Survey) - Great Salt Lake Resources & Questions along with Publications.
  
• Learn more from Ty Harrison, Professor of Biology, Westminster College of SLC. and the Great Salt Lake Project and other modules such as the Great Salt Lake Playa Foodweb Project. 

• More at: SELECT SOURCES, Northern Utah Wildlife, Utah.com, USFWS and learn about the modern land use conflicts from this document: Antelope Island Draft Access Management Plan - 2004 (PDF)