Wayne Wurtsbaugh
Registered: January 2000
Posts: 497
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Eared grebes (Podiceps nigricollis) at the causeway breach that allows water to flow between the south and north arms of the Great Salt Lake. The causeway was built across the lake to shorten travel times for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The division causes the north arm of the lake to by hypersaline, and the southern arm to be meromictic due to hypersaline underflows from the north to the south. Flooding in the south arm prompted the State of Utah to build the breach in 1984 to allow water to flow more easily into the north arm.
Vast numbers of grebes and other birds migrate through the lake and stop to feed on the abundant brine shrimp and brine flies in this productive ecosystem.
September, 2000.
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