Soda Lakes of the East African Rift System: The past, the present and the future

Abstract

The soda lakes of the East African Rift System are unique water bodies whose formation, topography and locational settings have conferred upon them endorheic basin features with arid to semiarid climatic conditions. These features, together with the geological characteristics of their catchments, have favoured the development of saline alkaline properties that make them peculiar and important from a number of perspectives. Most of these lakes have extreme environmental characteristics shown by high ionic contents of their water, high temperature conditions and eutrophic states. This enables them to support growth of few tolerant species of extremophilic Cyanobacteria and other microbes. Some of these lakes such as the Lakes Nakuru and Bogoria are highly productive, yielding some of the highest primary production rates in the world. This high productivity supports hundreds of thousands to, sometimes, millions of Lesser Flamingos in these two lakes. These lakes, however, are highly vulnerable to climate changes and environmental degradation associated with human activities due to their unique environmental conditions. This paper explores some of these unique features, the threats to their existence, the challenges to their conservation and potential strategies to protect them.