When the sea moves inland: A global climate wake-up call from #Bangladesh's Delta

As sea levels climb and #weather grows more extreme, coastal regions everywhere are facing a creeping threat: salt. #Salinization of #freshwater and #soils adversely affects 500 million people around the world, especially in low-lying #river #deltas.

The western parts of the delta, already more prone to tidal influence, showed the fastest increases in salinity. The data suggests that the combination of #SeaLevelRise, reduced freshwater flow, and increasingly frequent storm surges are all contributing to the inland movement and retention of saltwater.

Since about 2007, many parts of the delta have experienced stepwise increases in salinity, often linked to powerful storms like #Cyclone #Sidr. These changes can devastate crops, erode #FoodSecurity, and force communities to move. While the analysis focused primarily on environmental data, it underscores how salinity intrusion is increasingly a threat to livelihoods, public #health, and regional stability.

https://smartwatermagazine.com/news/university-portsmouth/when-sea-moves-inland-a-global-climate-wake-call-bangladeshs-delta

#ClimateCrisis
#ExtremeWeathe
#WaterSupply

The #Future will be hot, dry and SALTY

The anthropogenic salt cycle

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-023-00485-y

"Widespread use of salts in #food, #construction, #road deicing and #industry is driving #salinization of #water, #soil and #air. This Review describes the anthropogenic #salt cycle, compares it with #natural processes and examines its #environmental consequences"
"The suites of biological, physical and chemical #impacts that commonly occur together are known as #freshwater salinization syndrome (FSS)"

Road salt is driving regional salinization, and this is compromising municipal water in the lower Mohawk Watershed (NY). Has chloride in the Great Flats Aquifer caused high lead levels in Scotia NY? We need salt solutions.

#salinization #drinkingwater #salt #MohawkRiver

https://mohawk.substack.com/p/salinization-in-the-mohawk-watershed

Decades-old #crustaceans coaxed from lake mud give up genetic secrets revealing #evolution in action
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-decades-old-crustaceans-coaxed-lake-mud.html

Resurrection #genomics provides molecular and phenotypic evidence of rapid adaptation to #salinization in a keystone aquatic species https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2217276120

They revived decades-old #Daphnia resting eggs from lake sediments. Tanners Lake has suffered significant salt #pollution, stemming from the widespread use of road deicing salts in its watershed.

NY State leads the nation in use of road salt and our watersheds are paying the price.

The effects on aquatic organisms in the watershed have not yet been thoroughly studied.

This is the story of salt use in the Mohawk Watershed in NY State from my newsletter at Substack.

#Salt #Salinization #Watershed #Mohawk #AquaticEcology #chloride #Roadsalt

https://mohawk.substack.com/p/road-salt