Was recently flying over some salt lakes in the outback. This is one of the smaller ones i think. They are amazing things, just full of mud and clay and salt. Australia is a salty salty land.
But, recently, we went to an area where they had a flush of rain and the land was relatively moist. The normally dry lake beds were filled with water, filled no more than 1 m or so but absolutely teeming with life.
There are all kinds of aquatic fauna that spring to life with a major storm. These animals lay their eggs/ cysts in the lake beds and as the lakes dry up they go into a sort of stasis that allows them to survive indefinitely till the next big rain.
Then, when it does rain they spring to life and have a burst of sex and food till the water dries up and the whole waiting game starts again. The amazing thing is that it is not just little teensy-weensy things that you can hardly see in a sample of the water column but swimming around and splashing up against the lake shore. The ones i like the most are things called Triops, they are an amazing crustacean, they look prehistoric!!
Awesomme
But, recently, we went to an area where they had a flush of rain and the land was relatively moist. The normally dry lake beds were filled with water, filled no more than 1 m or so but absolutely teeming with life.
There are all kinds of aquatic fauna that spring to life with a major storm. These animals lay their eggs/ cysts in the lake beds and as the lakes dry up they go into a sort of stasis that allows them to survive indefinitely till the next big rain.
Then, when it does rain they spring to life and have a burst of sex and food till the water dries up and the whole waiting game starts again. The amazing thing is that it is not just little teensy-weensy things that you can hardly see in a sample of the water column but swimming around and splashing up against the lake shore. The ones i like the most are things called Triops, they are an amazing crustacean, they look prehistoric!!
Awesomme
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