However, populations of certain species are well adapted to this environment. The mud flats too are just as difficult and inhospitable for mammals due to strong winds, extreme temperatures and scarce vegetation. The saturated salt water of this saline lake with temperature reaching as high as 41degree Celsius near the hot mineral spring and erratic rainfall causing dramatic change in pH due to flooding of the lake with cold, slightly acidic water makes the lake difficult for life to thrive in. Though the lake lacks macrophytic vegetation but is highly productive in terms of algae with blue-green algae species like spirulina spp. which tend to grow on the saline soil around the lake. The lake is surrounded by a few halophytic plants like Cyperus laevigatus, Juncus maritimus, etc. Lake Natron is rich in sodium carbonate and is hence highly alkaline with a pH of about 10.5 and is hence viscous to touch.

Adding to the alkalinity of the lake are the sodic soils resulting from the volcanic activity that form the bed of the lakes. This climatic desiccation over the years has caused the lake to become saline with high contents of sodium carbonate decahydrate and sodium sesquicarbonate dehydrate. The lake witnesses a very erratic rainfall pattern with most of the rainfall in between the months of December and May followed by an extended dry period with an average temperature of over 40 degree Celsius causing high rates of water loss due to high evaporation rates. The blue-green algae filtered out by the lesser flamingos and the copepod larvae found in the shallow waters for the greater flamingos are its source of nutrition. This very shallow lake, which runs about 57 kilometers long and is about 22 kilometers wide is home to flocks of both lesser as well as greater flamingos which breed on the mud flats surrounding the lake regardless of its high salinity. This Ramsar wetland site, principally fed by Southern Ewaso Ngiro River and mineral hot springs provides a pretty inhospitable and inappropriate environment for the majority of the plants and animals by virtue of its high temperature and salinity and rapidly changing salinity post rains. Lake Natron, the East African Halophytic situated along the Great Rift Valley in Tanzania is a saline soda lake. Image source: Satellite imagery of Lake Natron, NASA

Lake natron pictures