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WHAT LIVES IN MONO LAKE?
ALKALI FLIES
Brine Shrimp
Each summer harmless alkali flies (Ephydra
hians) can be found along Mono’s shores, swarming
in big black clouds at your feet. Alkali flies feed
on lake-floor algae, and can “breathe” underwater
using tiny capsules of air they capture before they
submerge to feed or lay their eggs on underwater
rocks. The flies’ larval and pupal life stages also take
place underwater; amazingly, the fly spends only the
adult portion of its life out of the water! At
13 calories each, alkali
fly pupae provide
a nutritional
meal for
birds and
humans
alike.
What’s swimming around you if you take a dip
in Mono Lake? Those feathery creatures are the
native brine shrimp (Artemia monica). Ten to twelve
trillion of these fairy
shrimp hatch from
tiny egg-like cysts
on the lake floor
each spring. At only
half an inch long,
brine shrimp feed on
algae that grows on
submerged rocks and
plants, and in turn
feed many species of
Female (left) and male brine shrimp at
water birds that stop at three times life size.
the lake’s nourishing
shores. Female shrimp have a small dark egg sac at
their tail end, while male shrimp have clasping arms
near their heads.
Alkali fly life
cycle clockwise
from top: adult
fly, egg, larva, pupa.
WHY PROTECT MONO LAKE?
In 1941 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) began excessive water diversions from
Mono Basin streams. Mono Lake dropped 45 vertical feet, lost half its volume, and doubled in salinity.
The Mono Lake Committee was founded in 1978 in response to the threat of inevitable collapse of the Mono
Basin ecosystem. In 1994, after over a decade of litigation, the California Water Resources Control Board ordered
DWP to allow Mono Lake to rise to a healthy level of 6392 feet above sea level—twenty feet above Mono Lake’s
historic low. DWP has reduced its Mono Basin water exports by over 80%, and Mono Lake is on the rise!
Over the last 15 years, with help from the Mono Lake Committee, LA has become one of the
most water-conscious cities in the United States, conserving more than enough water
to share with Mono Lake. Today, the Committee continues to work to restore and
protect Mono Lake and educate new generations on the importance of this area.
WHAT’S FLYING OVERHEAD?
MiGRATORY BIRDS
You may be surprised to
hear the cry of the California
Gull (Larus californicus)
along Mono’s shores.
Approximately 40,000 gulls
migrate from the coast to
Mono Lake each spring to
build nests, lay eggs, and
raise their young.
Quite different from the
California Gull with chick.
raucous gull are the smaller,
more delicate Wilson’s and
Red-necked Phalaropes (Phalaropus tricolor and
Phalaropus lobatus). Instead of nesting at Mono Lake,
these shorebirds use the waters as one of their few
“rest stops” for eating
and molting during
a migration of over
3,000 miles to their
wintering grounds
in South America.
Wilson’s Phalarope.
The Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis), named for
the gold patches that resemble ears in its breeding
plumage, also uses Mono Lake as a “gas station”
to eat and rest on its
annual migration
from Canada to
the Salton Sea
and the Gulf
of California.
The grebes stuff
themselves full
Eared Grebe.
of shrimp for the
journey, and it’s estimated that the flocks (numbering
around 750,000) can consume up to sixty tons of brine
shrimp in one day! These birds are just three of over
300 species of birds you may see in the Mono Basin.
GEOLOGY AT MONO LAKE
PEOPLE AT MONO LAKE
Tufa Towers
The original dwellers at the lake, the Kutzadikaa
(“fly-eaters”), were named because of their summer
diet, which was based on the calorie-rich alkali fly
pupae. During summer months the Kutzadikaa lived
along creeks southwest of Mono Lake; in autumn they
moved to the northern side of the Mono Basin where
they gathered piñon pine
nuts before moving to the
warmer eastern shore in
winter for refuge from
storms. In the mid-1850s,
the arrival of European
settlers drawn by mining
prospects displaced the
Kutzadikaa, and only a
fraction of the former
population lives in the
Mono Basin today.
Kuztadikaa woman gathering pupae.
The town of Lee Vining
is named after a timber mill owner, Leroy Vining,
whose local mill provided necessary wood for the
mining operations at nearby Bodie and Aurora (now
ghost towns). Other settlers became farmers and
ranchers in the Mono Basin, helping to support the
mining industry.
Today the town of Lee Vining boasts 400 residents,
but the population swells each summer with millions
of visitors from all over the world.
One of Mono Lake’s most characteristic features is
the tufa towers that line its shores. Because the lake
has no outlet, trace amounts of salts and minerals
brought into the lake by freshwater streams have
accumulated over the centuries, leaving Mono Lake
with a salinity two to three times that of the Pacific
Ocean. Taking shape around underwater springs,
tufa formations are the result of the combination of
minerals in fresh and salt water. When calcium in
the freshwater spring meets carbonates in the lake’s
salt water, a calcium carbonate deposit precipitates
out and solidifies over the years into
the rocky towers we see on the shore
today. Anywhere a freshwater spring
enters Mono Lake
there are towers
being formed
underwater.
Islands
Mono Lake has two large islands, both of which
are the result of relatively recent volcanic activity.
Dark-colored Negit Island is a volcanic cinder
cone, and the nesting ground for California Gulls.
Paoha, the flat white island, is named for its hot
spring vents. Paoha is made up of lake bottom
sediment that was pushed above the surface of the
water by magma during volcanic activity.
VISIT MONO LAKE!
For information on any of these topics, or where to
see the features in this brochure, visit the Mono Lake
Committee, the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic
Area Visitor Center, or www.monolake.org.
MONO LAKE
Negit Island
C O M M I T T E E
Paoha Island
P.O. Box 29
•
(760) 647-6595
View of islands looking north from Panum Crater.
Text, Design by Karolyn Wyneken.
Lee Vining, CA 93541
•
www.monolake.org
Mono Lake Committee Field Guide Series
AN INTRODUCTION TO
MONO LAKE