Home/Species/ Mono Lake Brine Shrimp

Artemia monica

Verrill, 1869

Mono Lake Brine Shrimp

G3Vulnerable Found in 2 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →

G3VulnerableGlobal Rank

Conservation dependentIUCN

LowThreat Impact

Identity

Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.113938

Element CodeICBRA02010

Record TypeSPECIES

ClassificationSpecies

Classification StatusStandard

Name CategoryInvertebrate Animal

IUCNConservation dependent

Endemicendemic to a single state or province

KingdomAnimalia

PhylumArthropoda

ClassBranchiopoda

OrderAnostraca

FamilyArtemiidae

GenusArtemia

Other Common Names

Mono Brine Shrimp (EN)

Concept Reference

McLaughlin, P. A., D. K. Camp, M. V. Angel, E. L. Bousfield, P. Brunel, R. C. Brusca, D. Cadien, A. C. Cohen, K. Conlan, L. G. Eldredge, D. L. Felder, J. W. Goy, T. Haney, B. Hann, R. W. Heard, E. A. Hendrycks, H. H. Hobbs III, J. R. Holsinger, B. Kensley, D. R. Laubitz, S. E. LeCroy, R. Lemaitre, R. F. Maddocks, J. W. Martin, P. Mikkelsen, E. Nelson, W. A. Newman, R. M. Overstreet, W. J. Poly, W. W. Price, J. W. Reid, A. Robertson, D. C. Rogers, A. Ross, M. Schotte, F. Schram, C. Shih, L. Watling, G. D. F. Wilson, and D. D. Turgeon. 2005. Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Crustaceans. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 31. 545 pp.

Taxonomic Comments

Probably evolved from a population of Artemia franciscana in Mono Lake (Eriksen and Belk, 1999). There are differing views on whether A. franciscana and A. monica are sibling species; furthermore, there are no taxonomic identification keys for the genus due to a lack of reliable morphological characters (Asem et al. 2010).
All Artemia were formerly considered to belong to a single species, Artemia salina, but were divided into several closely related species by Bowen et al. (1980). However, there is taxonomic confusion with numerous published data using the trade name "Artemia salina" for any population in this genus (Asem et al. 2010).

Conservation Status

Rank MethodLegacy Rank calculation - Excel v3.1x

Review Date2013-09-03

Change Date2013-09-03

Edition Date2013-09-03

Edition AuthorsSears, N. (2013); Cordeiro, J. (2008)

Threat ImpactLow

Range Extent100-250 square km (about 40-100 square miles)

Number of Occurrences1 - 5

Rank Reasons

This species is endemic to Mono Lake in California and an estimated 4-6 trillion brine shrimp inhabit the lake during the warmer summer months. It has no major threats now or in the foreseeable future and is stable, but since there is only one population from a single lake, this species is ranked as vulnerable.

Range Extent Comments

Endemic and only inhabits one terminal lake (Mono Lake, Mono Co., California).

Occurrences Comments

This species is represented by only one known occurrence.

Threat Impact Comments

This species has no known threats, however there are several environmental factors that can affect development, survival and reproduction of the Mono Lake brine shrimp: temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and food supply (see the Mono Basin EIR for discussion).

The shrimp population appears to be unaffected by either bird predation or commercial harvest.

A 1987 petition to add A. monica to the endangered species list based on the threat of rising salinity and concentration of sodium hydroxide in Mono Lake was found in 1995 to not be warranted (USFWS 1995).

Ecology & Habitat

Diagnostic Characteristics

Similar to Artemia franciscana but does not co-occur. Only in Mono Lake. Cyst similar to A. franciscana in size (mean 0.19 mm) but Artemia monica cysts sink when released, do not require a period of desiccation, do need 1-3 months of cold water incubation before hatching in March (Eriksen and Belk, 1999).

Habitat

Endemic and only inhabits one terminal lake (Mono Lake, Mono Co., California) with elevated concentrations of salt. This is North America's oldest lake (500,000 years) with high TDS 76,000 ppm (1967) to 93,600 ppm (1988), pH 9.7, and extremely high alkalinity at 19,500 ppm (1967) to 36,700 ppm (1988) (Eriksen and Belk, 1999).

Other Nations (1)

United StatesN3

Province	Rank	Native
California	S3	Yes

Roadless Areas (2)

California (2)

Area	Forest	Acres
Horse Mdw.	Inyo National Forest	5,687
Log Cabin Saddlebag	Inyo National Forest	15,165

References (12)

Asem, A., N. Rastegar-Pouyani, and P. De Los Ríos-Escalante. 2010. The genus Artemia Leach, 1819 (Crustacea: Branchiopoda). I. True and false taxonomical descriptions. Latin American Journal of Aquatic Research 38(3):501-506.
Bowen, S.T., M.L. Davis, S.R. Fenster, and G.A. Lindwall. 1980. Sibling species of Artemia. Pages 155-167 in G. Persoone, P. Sorgeloos, O. Roels, and E. Jaspers (eds.), The brine shrimp Artemia, Volume 1, Morphology, genetics, radiobiology, toxicology. Universa Press, Wetteren, Belgium.
California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), Division of Water Rights. 1993. Natural History of the Mono Lake Brine Shrimp. Appendix J in Final Environmental Impact Report for the Review of Mono Basin Water Rights of the City of Los Angeles (Mono Basin EIR), 551/APPD-J. 1993-1994. Prepared with technical assistance from Jones & Stokes Associates, Inc.
Eriksen, C. H. and D. Belk. 1999. Fairy Shrimps of California's Puddles, Pools, and Playas. Mad River Press: Eureka, California.196 pp.
Jellison, R. and K. Rose. 2012. Mixing and plankton dynamics in Mono Lake, California. Report submitted to the Marine Science Institute University of California, Santa Barbara, California. 179 pp.
McBain and Trush, Inc., and Ross Taylor and Associates. 2010. Mono Basin stream restoration and monitoring program: Synthesis of instream flow recommendations to the State Water Resources Control Board and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Final report. 155 pp.
McLaughlin, P. A., D. K. Camp, M. V. Angel, E. L. Bousfield, P. Brunel, R. C. Brusca, D. Cadien, A. C. Cohen, K. Conlan, L. G. Eldredge, D. L. Felder, J. W. Goy, T. Haney, B. Hann, R. W. Heard, E. A. Hendrycks, H. H. Hobbs III, J. R. Holsinger, B. Kensley, D. R. Laubitz, S. E. LeCroy, R. Lemaitre, R. F. Maddocks, J. W. Martin, P. Mikkelsen, E. Nelson, W. A. Newman, R. M. Overstreet, W. J. Poly, W. W. Price, J. W. Reid, A. Robertson, D. C. Rogers, A. Ross, M. Schotte, F. Schram, C. Shih, L. Watling, G. D. F. Wilson, and D. D. Turgeon. 2005. Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Crustaceans. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 31. 545 pp.
Mono Lake Committee. 2013. http://www.monolake.org/.
Rogers, D. C. 2013. Anostraca catalogus (Crustacea: Branchiopoda). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 61(2):525–546.
Rogers, D.C. and B.J. Hann. 2016. Class Branchiopoda (in Chapter 16, Phylum Arthropoda). Pages 437-477 in J.H. Thorp and and D.C. Rogers (Editors), Thorp and Covich’s Freshwater Invertebrates, 4th edition, Volume II: Keys to Nearctic Fauna. Academic Press.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1989a. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; animal notice of review. Federal Register 54(4):554-579.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). 1995. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; 12-month finding for a petition to list the Mono Lake Brine Shrimp as endangered. Federal Register 60(173): 46571-46572.