The effect of severe drought on the disappearance of the brine shrimp Artemia from Urmia Lake

Abstract

Urmia Lake has been suffered from continuous water withdrawal for more than 2 decades. It is the largest habitat of a unique brine shrimp species, Artemia urmiana, first reported by Gϋnther. This study was performed to determine if harsh environmental conditions has eliminated the A. urmiana from the lake. Six sampling sites were selected in northern and southern parts of the lake. Two stations were not accessible through the sampling campaign due to drastic water withdrawal and marshy path. Samplings were performed monthly from March 2022 to February 2023. Electeric Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) were determined by EC-meter WTW model LF 320 and multi-meter WTW model 3410, respectively. The water salinity was measured by refracto-meter ATAGO (Japan) model S-28E. Water level, surface area and volume were extracted from East Azarbaijan water resources management company web site. The brine shrimp samples were collected by pulling a net (25×100cm - 100 μ mesh size) in definite distance. The Artemia samples were studied under stereomicroscope Nikon. In this study, we did not observe any types of Artemia biomass (Nauplii, Meta-nauplii, young and adult Artemia). Only Artemia cysts was observed in Lake Urmia. In summer and autumn (dry season) cyst density were 0.00216 ± 0.0017 No/l and zero, respectively, whereas in spring and winter (wet season) were 0.364 ± 0.259 and 0.149 ± 0.084 No/l. In general, the results of this study show that the surface area, volume and level of the lake had the highest effects on the cyst density.

Keywords

• artemia biomass
• cyst density
• urmia lake
• water level
• drought