Since July 2005, the blog of Oxford University Press (OUPblog) is a source for learning, understanding and reflection, providing different academic insights. Johanna Laybourn-Parry, a visiting profesor from Bristol University, at her recent post (December 8th, 2014) focused on the lake ecosystems of the Antarctic. We were attracted to this post by the key word “saline lakes”.

Antarctica would appear to offer little in the way of excitement for anyone interested in the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of lakes. However, surprisingly Antarctica possesses the most diverse array of lakes types on the planet. The ice-free areas, which are bare rock, carry freshwater lakes and saline lakes, some as salty as the Dead Sea.

More scientific information about diverse range of hyposaline, saline, and hypersaline lakes on Antarctica ice-free coastal areas and in the inland McMurdo Dry Valleys can be found in the special chapter on Saline lakes in the Antarctic Lakes which is available on Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO).