Microbial Survival in the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana

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Naturally formed salt pans are found in many arid and semiarid environments on Earth, including the USA, Australia, China and Africa. Studies have shown that certain microorganism (halophiles, i.e. salt loving) can life within salt pan environments and survive exposure to high salinity, desiccation, daily fluctuations in temperature and intense solar radiation. The Makgadikgadi Basin in Botswana is the relict of a mega-paleolake system that originated during the Pleistocene. Nowadays, the basin consists of a system of ephemeral lakes consisting of several pans. The largest pans are the Ntwetwe Pan in the west and the Sua Pan in the East (Figure 1), each containing distinct morphological features that are remnants of an ancient lake system. These features have been influenced by local environmental factors such as precipitation, water inflow and aeolian activity, and can act as a paleoclimatic archives for climate information. Preliminary work has demonstrated that diverse microbial communities exist with the pan; however, little is known about the ecological strategies utilized by these microbial communities in response to the environmental challenges presented by the pan.