Editing Mono Lake (section)

==Limnology==
[[File:Mono Lake Tufa.JPG|thumb|Mono Lake's "South Tufa" area.]]
The [[limnology]] of the lake shows it contains approximately 280 million tons of dissolved salts, with the [[salinity]] varying depending upon the amount of water in the lake at any given time. Before 1941, average salinity was approximately 50&nbsp;grams per liter (g/L) (compared to a value of 31.5 g/L for the world's oceans). In January 1982, when the lake reached its lowest level of {{convert|6372|ft|m|0|order=flip}}, the salinity had nearly doubled to 99 g/L. In 2002, it was measured at 78 g/L and is expected to stabilize at an average 69 g/L as the lake replenishes over the next 20 years.<ref name="mlcfaq">{{cite web|title=Mono Lake FAQ|publisher=Mono Lake Committee|access-date=2010-12-02|url=http://www.monolake.org/about/faq|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615160759/http://monolake.org/about/faq|archive-date=2010-06-15|url-status=live}}</ref>

An unintended consequence of ending the water diversions was the onset of a period of [[Meromictic|"meromixis"]] in Mono Lake.<ref name=Jellison1998>{{Cite journal|last=Jellison|first=R.|author2=J. Romero|author3=J. M. Melack|year=1998|url=http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_43/issue_4/0706.pdf|title=The onset of meromixis in Mono Lake: unintended consequences of reducing water diversions|journal=Limnology and Oceanography|pages=704–11|access-date=2008-11-13|issue=4|volume=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207220721/http://www.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_43/issue_4/0706.pdf|archive-date=2012-02-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the time prior to this, Mono Lake was typically "[[Monomictic lake|monomictic]]"; which means that at least once each year the deeper waters and the shallower waters of the lake mixed thoroughly, thus bringing oxygen and other nutrients to the deep waters. In meromictic lakes, the deeper waters do not undergo this mixing; the deeper layers are more saline than the water near the surface, and are typically nearly devoid of oxygen. As a result, becoming meromictic greatly changes a lake's ecology.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Melack|first1=JM|last2=Jellison|first2=R|last3=MacIntyre|first3=S|last4=Hollibaugh|first4=JT|year=2017|chapter=Mono Lake: Plankton Dynamics over Three Decades of Meromixis or Monomixis|editor1-last=Gulati|editor1-first=R|editor2-last=Zadereev|editor2-first=E|editor3-last=Degermendzhi|editor3-first=A|title=Ecology of Meromictic Lakes|series=Ecological Studies|volume= 228|pages=325–351 |publisher=Springer|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-49143-1_11|isbn=978-3-319-49141-7 }}</ref>

Mono Lake has experienced meromictic periods in the past; this most recent episode of meromixis, brought on by the end of the water diversions, commenced in 1994 and had ended by 2004.<ref name=Jellison2003>{{Cite web|last1=Jellison|first1=R.|last2=Roll|first2=S.|date=June 2003|url=http://www.monolake.uga.edu/public/files/Mono_Lake_Mixing.pdf|title=Weakening and near-breakdown of meromixis in Mono Lake|via=monolake.uga.edu|access-date=2008-11-13|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030045630/http://www.monolake.uga.edu/public/files/Mono_Lake_Mixing.pdf|archive-date=2008-10-30}}</ref>

===Lake-level history===
An important characteristic of Mono Lake is that it is a [[Open and closed lakes|closed lake]], meaning it has no outflow. Water can only escape the lake if it [[Evaporation|evaporates]] or is lost to [[groundwater]]. This may cause closed lakes to become very [[Salinity|saline]]. The reconstruction of historical Mono Lake levels through [[Isotopes of carbon|carbon]] and [[D18O|oxygen]] isotopes have also revealed a correlation with well-documented [[Climate change|changes in climate]].<ref name=":15">{{cite journal|last1=Benson|first1=LV|last2=Currey|first2=DR|last3=Dorn|first3=RI|last4=Lajoie|first4=KR|last5=Oviatt|first5=CG|last6=Robinson|first6=SW|last7= Smith|first7=GI|last8=Stine|first8=S|display-authors=4|year=1990|title=Chronology of expansion and contraction of four Great Basin lake systems during the past 35,000 years|journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology|volume=78|issue=3–4|pages=241–286|doi=10.1016/0031-0182(90)90217-U |bibcode=1990PPP....78..241B }}</ref>

In the recent past, Earth experienced periods of increased [[Glacial period|glaciation]] known as [[ice age]]s. This geological period of ice ages is known as the [[Pleistocene]], which lasted until ~11 [[Millennium|ka]]. Lake levels in Mono Lake can reveal how the climate fluctuated. For example, during the cold climate of the Pleistocene the lake level was higher because there was less [[evaporation]] and more [[precipitation]]. Following the Pleistocene, the lake level was generally lower due to increased [[evaporation]] and decreased [[precipitation]] associated with a warmer climate.<ref name=":15"/>

The lake level has fluctuated during the [[Holocene]], since the end of the ice ages. The Holocene high point is at elevation {{convert|1980.8|m|ft|0|order=flip}}, reached in approximately 1820 BCE.<ref name=holocene-levels>{{cite journal|first=Scott|last=Stine|title=Late holocene fluctuations of Mono Lake, eastern California|journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology|volume=78|issue=3–4|year=1990|pages=333–381|doi=10.1016/0031-0182(90)90221-R|bibcode=1990PPP....78..333S }}</ref> The low point before modern diversions is at elevation {{convert|1940.9|m|ft|0|order=flip}}, reached in 143 CE.<ref name=holocene-levels/> The lowest modern level due to diversions is at {{convert|6372.0|ft|m|1}}, reached in 1980.<ref name="level"/>