Remote sensing the hydrological variability of Tanzania's Lake Natron, a vital Lesser Flamingo breeding site under threat

Tebbs, Emma; Remedios, J. J.; Avery, Sean T.; Harper, David M.

doi:10.1016/j.ecohyd.2013.02.002

Cited by 27 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Panel (a) shows the lake almost completely dry, panel (b) shows the lake at its maximum extent (see also Figs 5 and 6 of ref. 16 ). The dates of these two extremes were found using the MODIS water product from the period 2013–2017.…”

Section: Lake Natronmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) emanations from Lake Natron’s saline mudflats

Clarisse

Damme

Gardner

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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In a recent global analysis of satellite-derived atmospheric NH3 data, a hotspot was observed in the vicinity of Lake Natron, Tanzania. The lake is in the centre of an endorheic (limited drainage) basin and has shallow, saline-alkaline waters. Its remote location and the absence of nearby large anthropogenic sources suggest that the observed NH3 is mainly of natural origin. Here we explore 10 years of IASI NH3 satellite data and other publicly available datasets over the area to characterize the natural NH3 emissions in this unique ecosystem. Temporal analysis reveals that the emissions are episodic and linked with the lake’s surface area. The largest NH3 column loadings generally occur at the end of the dry season in September–November over Lake Natron’s largest mudflat, that is exposed with receding water levels. The timing is different from the agricultural dominated NH3 emissions in the wider Natron area, which peak early in the year, after the first wet season. The likely source of NH3 at Lake Natron is decomposition of organic material, either from rivers and springs or produced in the lake (plankton, bird excreta). High temperatures and alkalinity are known to promote NH3 losses from soda lakes. We formulate six processes that may explain why the largest losses are observed specifically over concentrated brines and/or exposed sediments. As a by-product, we also show that hyperspectral infrared sounders such as IASI are capable of mapping different types of evaporative minerals such as trona and thermonatrite.

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Section: Lake Natronmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) emanations from Lake Natron’s saline mudflats

Clarisse

Damme

Gardner

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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“…Both of the focal lakes are shallow endorheic basins, with Lake Natron having an average lake area of 398 km 2 varying from 81 to 804 km 2 (Tebbs et al . ), and Lake Magadi ranging from 75 to 108 km 2 in dry to wet seasons (Jones et al . ; Vanden Bossche & Bernacsek ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both of the focal lakes are shallow endorheic basins, with Lake Natron having an average lake area of 398 km 2 varying from 81 to 804 km 2 (Tebbs et al 2013), and Lake Magadi ranging from 75 to 108 km 2 in dry to wet seasons (Jones et al 1977;Vanden Bossche & Bernacsek 1990). The lakes are subject to substantial climatic effects, with a negative evaporative balance (Burrough & Thomas 2009) (sodium carbonate precipitate) covers most of the lakes' surfaces, forming a solid covering separating lagoons of permanent open water close to the shore (Kaufman et al 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High levels of interspecific gene flow in an endemic cichlid fish adaptive radiation from an extreme lake environment

et al. 2015

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Studying recent adaptive radiations in isolated insular systems avoids complicating causal events and thus may offer clearer insight into mechanisms generating biological diversity. Here, we investigate evolutionary relationships and genomic differentiation within the recent radiation of Alcolapia cichlid fish that exhibit extensive phenotypic diversification, and which are confined to the extreme soda lakes Magadi and Natron in East Africa. We generated an extensive RAD data set of 96 individuals from multiple sampling sites and found evidence for genetic admixture between species within Lake Natron, with the highest levels of admixture between sympatric populations of the most recently diverged species. Despite considerable environmental separation, populations within Lake Natron do not exhibit isolation by distance, indicating panmixia within the lake, although individuals within lineages clustered by population in phylogenomic analysis. Our results indicate exceptionally low genetic differentiation across the radiation despite considerable phenotypic trophic variation, supporting previous findings from smaller data sets; however, with the increased power of densely sampled SNPs, we identify genomic peaks of differentiation (F ST outliers) between Alcolapia species. While evidence of ongoing gene flow and interspecies hybridization in certain populations suggests that Alcolapia species are incompletely reproductively isolated, the identification of outlier SNPs under diversifying selection indicates the radiation is undergoing adaptive divergence.

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“…In September 2004, a collapse of the A. fusiformis bloom took place in Lake Bogoria (Oduor and Schagerl, 2007b;Tebbs et al, 2013a). It is likely that, at this time, the lake was dominated by the decay products of A. fusiformis (Tebbs et al, 2013b).…”

Section: Insights Gained From Examination Of Landsat Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional assessment of lake ecological states using Landsat: A classification scheme for alkaline–saline, flamingo lakes in the East African Rift Valley

Tebbs

Remedios

Avery

et al. 2015

International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinfor

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Article (refereed) -postprintTebbs, E.J.; Remedios, J.J.; Avery, S.T.; Rowland, C.S.; Harper, D.M. 2015. Regional assessment of lake ecological states using Landsat: a classification scheme for alkaline-saline, flamingo lakes in the East African Rift Valley.Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner. AbstractIn situ reflectance measurements and Landsat satellite imagery were com- situ measurements. Classified imagery and timeseries were produced for selected lakes, which show the different ecological behaviours of these complex systems. The results have highlighted the importance to flamingos of the food resources offered by the extremely remote Lake Logipi. This study has demonstrated the potential of high spatial resolution, low spectral resolution sensors for providing ecologically valuable information at a regional scale, for alkaline-saline lakes and similar hypereutrophic inland waters.

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Remote sensing the hydrological variability of Tanzania's Lake Natron, a vital Lesser Flamingo breeding site under threat

Cited by 27 publications

References 15 publications

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) emanations from Lake Natron’s saline mudflats

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) emanations from Lake Natron’s saline mudflats

High levels of interspecific gene flow in an endemic cichlid fish adaptive radiation from an extreme lake environment

Regional assessment of lake ecological states using Landsat: A classification scheme for alkaline–saline, flamingo lakes in the East African Rift Valley

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