European Diatom Database-Caspian Saline Lake Dataset

The Caspian dataset consists of 29 benthic and plankton samples lakes in the Berouskije Bugri area of the Caspian Lowlands, S. Russia. The samples were collected summer 1996 by K. Labunskaya of the Astrakhan State Technical University and Steve Juggins, and diatoms were counted by Jane Reed.

The dataset spans a gradient from permanent slightly brackish lakes (salinity < 2 g/l) to shallow, ephemeral hypersaline saline playas (salinity > 100 g/l). The majority of lakes are of the NaMg-Cl brine types, although sulphate is an important secondary anion for five sites, and three sites show elevated calcium concentrations. Although there is a very strong relationship between diatom composition and salinity this dataset is considered too small to use for a local transfer function and so samples are only used in the larger combined Salinity transfer function.