Climate change is turning coastal lagoons into 鈥榮alty soup鈥
The impacts of human activity and climate change are coalescing to make coastal lagoons saltier, changing the microbial life they support and the function they play in their ecosystems, according to new University of Adelaide research.
Birds flocking beneath the dunes of the Coorong, a coastal lagoon in South Australia. Credit: Darcy Whittaker, CC-BY.
Coastal lagoons are critical ecosystems that provide essential habitats and ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and fisheries support.
鈥淯nder normal conditions, lagoons act as nurseries for fish and crustaceans, they are internationally important feeding grounds for migratory birds, and they protect coasts from storm surges,鈥 says the University鈥檚 Dr Chris Keneally.
鈥淭heir microbial makeup is what makes this happen, recycling nutrients and fostering this high productivity, allowing diverse plant and animal life to flourish.
鈥淗owever, a single hot, dry summer, like the one we have recently experienced, can completely shift this important habitat into a salty, green soup, leading to the microbes becoming less diverse and those that are salt-tolerant becoming more dominant.
鈥淜ey processes, such as nitrification, de-nitrification, and carbon cycling are then disrupted, altering nutrient retention, organic matter decomposition, and greenhouse gas emissions.鈥
The trend of hypersalinity in coastal lagoons is global, occurring most often in arid and semi-arid coastal lagoons, such as those in Australia, the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf. The phenomenon has accelerated in Australia over the last 40 years.
A global map of representative coastal lagoons with salinity above seawater. Background colours depict the K枚ppen-Geiger climate classification between 1991 and 2020. ().
鈥淭he rise in salinity can be attributed to elevated temperatures, enhanced evaporation, reduced rain and freshwater inputs, and rising sea levels,鈥 says Dr Keneally, whose recent study was published in .
鈥淗uman factors such as upstream water diversions, urbanisation and development, and groundwater depletion also reduce freshwater inflow to coastal lagoons.
鈥淲e can mitigate the impacts of these activities by restoring environmental flows. Allocating water for the environment can maintain lagoon flushing, and nutrient runoff can be reduced by upgrading wastewater plants, re-establishing wetlands, and increasing efforts to retain nutrients in our agricultural lands throughout catchments worldwide.
鈥淭o buffer the effects of drought or sea鈥憀evel rise, we could also re-open closed tidal inlets to improve mixing, or improving salt tolerant vegetation coverage to trap sediment and slow evaporation.鈥
A lagoon can bounce back surprisingly fast when appropriately flushed. After the record 2022 Murray鈥揇arling floods, South Australia鈥檚 Coorong Lagoon鈥檚 microbiome within months, demonstrating that timely freshwater inputs can rapidly reverse 鈥榮alty soup鈥 conditions.
Addressing high salinity and nutrient pollution in lagoons benefits the ecosystems they serve while mitigating human health impacts.
鈥淔ish kills hurt local fisheries, algae blooms may produce toxins or airborne irritants, and lost seagrass can weaken coastal flood protection,鈥 says Dr Keneally.
鈥淓merging research also suggests degradation can make these ecosystems a source of potent greenhouse emissions, adding to climate impacts felt well beyond the shoreline.鈥
Media contact:
Dr Chris Keneally, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Freshwater & Ecophysiology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide. Phone: 聽+61 08 8313 3042 Email: christopher.keneally@adelaide.edu.au
Johnny von Einem, Senior Media Officer, University of Adelaide. Phone: +61 0481 688 436, Email: johnny.voneinem@adelaide.edu.au