Lake Urmia - Ecology

Ecology

Lake Urmia is home to some 212 species of birds, 41 reptiles, 7 amphibians, and 27 species of mammals, including the Iranian yellow deer. It is an internationally registered protected area as both a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a Ramsar site. The Iranian Dept. of Environment has designated most of the lake as a "National Park".

The recent drought has significantly decreased the annual amount of water the lake receives. This in turn has increased the salinity of the lake's water, lowering the lake viability as home to thousands of migratory birds including the large flamingo populations. The salinity has particularly increased in the half of the lake north of the causeway.

The lake is marked by more than a hundred small rocky islands, which are stopover points in the migrations of various kinds of wild bird life (including flamingos, pelicans, spoonbills, ibises, storks, shelducks, avocets, stilts, and gulls).

By virtue of its high levels of salinity, the lake no longer sustains any fish species. Nonetheless, Lake Urmia is considered a significant natural habitats of Artemia, which serve as food source for the migratory birds such as flamingos.

The lake is a major barrier between two of the most important cities in West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan provinces, Urmia and Tabriz. A project to build a highway across the lake was initiated in the 1970s but was abandoned after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, having finished a 15 km causeway with an unbridged gap. The project was revived in the early 2000s, and was completed in November 2008 with the opening of a 1.5 km bridge across the remaining gap. The highly saline environment is already heavily rusting the steel on the bridge despite anti-corrosion treatment. Experts have warned that the construction of the causeway and bridge, together with a series of ecological factors, will eventually lead to the drying up of the lake, turning it into a salt marsh which will directly affect the climate of the region. Lake Urmia has been shrinking for a long time, with an annual evaporation rate of 0.6m to 1m (24 to 39 inches). Although measures are now being taken to reverse the trend the lake has shrunk by 60 percent and could disappear entirely.

On August 2, 2012, MohammadJavad Mohammadzadeh, the head of Iran's Environment Protection Organization, announced that Armenia have agreed on transferring water from Armenia to counter the critical fall in Lake Oroumiyeh's water levels, remarking that "hot weather and a lack of precipitation have brought the lake to its lowest water levels ever recorded." He added that recovery plans for the lake include the transfer of water from Eastern Azerbaijan Province. (Previously, Iranian authorities had announced a plan to transfer water from the Aras River, which borders Iran and Republic of Azerbaijan. But that country objected, and the 950-billion-touman plan was scrapped).

• Satellite image of Lake Urmia, taken in November 2003, the bisectioning of the lake (due to construction of the bridge) is visible in the center of the lake.

• Satellite image of Lake Urmia, 2010

• Satellite imagery of lake Urmiah between years 1984 and 2011, showing great amount of drainage and surface area loss.

• Causeway bridge, completed in 2008