Introduction to Saline Environments

Abstract

This chapter considers the saline environments, their special characteristics and how they interact with halophilic microorganisms. As stated, hypersaline environments are extreme environments, so the chapter begins by analyzing the concept of extreme environments and extremophiles. The Earth's environments that meet these conditions are diverse, however, most have the following characteristics: intermediate temperatures, neutral pH, pressure of only a few atmospheres, abundant oxygen, and the salinity of fresh or seawater. In answering the question of distribution and abundance of hypersaline waters, it is essential to consider their origin-under what conditions, and how the hypersaline water bodies arose. The place of origin of the salts found in most hypersaline environments is seawater. Although evaporite depositional environments are required for the precipitation of the large amounts of salts often found in these rocks, other hypersaline environments derived from seawater evaporation exist in considerable abundance along the shorelines of arid and semiarid zones.