The seeds of life

The salt lake harsh and lifeless
Glitters white hot in the sun
A wasteland free of life stress
Until the day is done


But hidden in the salt crust
Waiting for a storm
Are tiny seeds of life dust
That one day will be born

And finally there comes a time
A day of salt lake dreaming
When tiny shrimp of brine
Fill the flooded lake all teeming

The water birds are gobbling
And shrieking while they feed
And over partners squabbling
As they seek a mate to breed

When you look at an apparently lifeless salt lake glittering in the harsh summer sun under a cloudless sun bleached sky it is difficult to envisage an environment less amenable to life. And yet there, embedded in the salt crust, are tiny almost invisible brine shrimp eggs or cysts waiting for the rain. These small brown cysts measuring about 200 microns in diameter are almost fully dehydrated and will remain viable for decades. There they lie, dormant in suspended animation until the day it rains. When the rains come and the salt crust dissolves tiny microalgae living in the salt and the underlying mud of the salt lake begin to reproduce rapidly turning the brine into a green organic soup. The brine shrimp cysts draw in water through their permeable shells and when fully hydrated begin to hatch. Within 24 hours the newly hatched brine shrimp begin to feed on the green soup and grow rapidly. They then begin to reproduce and the salt lake becomes thick with brine shrimp. And not just brine shrimp. The cysts of many other species of small molluscs and crustacea that were also dormant in the salt quickly join the party. In barely no time, the previously lifeless salt lake is a seething sea of life. And then the birds arrive in their countless thousands to feast on the sea of plenty and to breed. Ducks and pelicans are joined by migratory wading birds from as far away as Siberia in a magnificent spectacle of abundant life. And then when the party is over and the lake dries out the seeds of life again remain dormant in the salt crust until the next rain.

It is easy to overlook the immense ecological importance of salt lakes to bird life in particular and in their own right.