Mono Lake
Mono Lake is a large alkaline and hypersaline lake in eastern California which is a remnant of a larger lake left over from the melting of glaciers 700,000 years ago. It is fed by inflow from the local watershed, but it has no outlet. Hence water evaporates and leaves behind dissolved salt. The scenery is undoubtedly beautiful,
but you would not want to drink the water. It has a salinity of about 81 grams per liter (g/l) or about 2 ½ times as saline as the Pacific Ocean. The water also has a pH approaching 10, which is 80 times as alkaline as the ocean, an "extreme environment". Nevertheless, this lake also hosts a thriving community of halophile (hyper saline loving) and alkaliphile (alkaline pH loving) organisms. The potentially Arsenic eating bacteria that was discussed in a previous page came from Mono Lake.
Mono Lake is one of the prime examples of thriving communities in a hostile environment. Unlike most of the locations we are discussing in this course, this is a location that you could and might actually want to visit. If so, start here.
