Lucky Artemia!
Ann Arbor, MI — Artemia are a group of small aquatic crustaceans that are sometimes sold as "Sea Monkeys." Urimia Lake in Iran is home of a large population of Artemia. The proposed construction of a causeway through Urmia Lake may threaten the future of this important group of animals.
In the past 30 years, researchers tried to address this concern by simulating Urmia Lake using simple models two-dimension numerical models. The simple models showed that the construction of the causeway would not have an important effect on the condition of Urmia Lake. However, environmentalists are not convinced by these two-dimentional models, and so developing a reliable three-dimensional model is important.
"Urmia Lake is very saline with total dissolved salts reaching 200 g/l," says Mostafa Zeinoddini, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the KNTUniversity of Technology-Iran.
"The flow and salinity regimes may be affected by the presence of this new causeway. We should know these changes because of their direct effects on [the well] being of the Artemia population."
Zeinoddini, Tofighi, and Vafaee have conducted an investigation of the factors affecting water flow and salinity in Urmia Lake using a three-dimensional numerical model. Their study has shown that the impacts of the causeway are not as large as originally believed.
They also discuss how climatic variability affects this lake.
Original Publication Information
Results of this study, "Evaluation of dike-type causeway impacts on the flow and salinity regimes in Urmia Lake, Iran," are reported by Mostafa Zeinoddini, Mohammad Ali Tofighi, and Fereydun Vafaee in the latest issue (Volume 35, No. 1, pp. 13-22) of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by Elsevier, 2009.
Contacts
For more information about the study, contact John Janssen, Great Lakes WATER Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53204, jjanssen@uwm.edu, (414) 382-1733.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; editor@iaglr.org; (608) 692-1076.
Since 1967, IAGLR has served as the focal point for compiling and disseminating multidisciplinary knowledge on North America's Laurentian Great Lakes and other large lakes of the world and their watersheds. In part, IAGLR communicates this knowledge through publication of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, available to members in print and electronic form. A searchable archive of the journal is available online and includes the abstracts of articles from the journal's inception in 1975 through the most recent issue. In addition, complete articles are available to members who have signed up for an electronic subscription.