Presenters: Paulina Martinez Koury
Authors: Paulina Martinez Koury, Alvin Sihapanya
Faculty Advisor: Bonnie Baxter
Institution: Westminster College
Great Salt Lake (GSL) is an under-explored hypersaline system, a closed environment with a high salt concentration. In 1960,a rock filled causeway was constructed separating the lake intotwodistinct environments. The north arm was isolated from freshwater input resulting in 30%salinitycompared to the south arm’s 15%. These environments contain unique microorganisms called halophiles, meaning "salt-loving," which can be bacteria, archaea, algae, or fungi. Halophiles in the north arm endure several extreme conditions, such as high salt concentrations, desiccation through prolonged periods of extreme dryness, and high doses of ultraviolet light. The south arm, though less extreme, still presents these challenges, and the threat of increasing salinity is concerning here since this bay hostsmicrobialites, which are rocks built by photosynthetic microorganisms, and their input into the energy of the ecosystem iscritical. Salinity influences the species of microorganisms present in these extreme environments. We hypothesize that microbial diversity will decrease as the salt concentration increases over a salinitygradient.Ourresearch focused on the collection of water,microbialites, gypsum and halitesamples to analyze and compare the biodiversity found in each arm of the lake. Each was analyzed using various microscopy and cultivation techniques, and molecular methods to assess genetic diversity. Our work may illuminate the impacts of salinity changes in the lake as GSL’s shorelines recede,may help us understand the implications of shifts in microbial communities, and isan excellent analogue for ancient salt lakes that dried up on Mars billions of years ago.