Climate Vulnerability and Water Extent Assessment in Four Salt Lakes in Northwestern Algeria: Suitability for Brine Shrimp Artemia Production

Mohammed, RABHI; Sidi Mohammed, Ghomari; Abdeldjalil, Bougherira

doi:10.21608/ejabf.2025.408033.6302

Climate Vulnerability and Water Extent Assessment in Four Salt Lakes in Northwestern Algeria: Suitability for Brine Shrimp Artemia Production

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Laboratory for Protection and Valorisation of Marine and Coastal Resources and Molecular Systematics (PVRMLSM). Department of Marine Sciences and Aquaculture, Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University of

² Laboratory of Geographical Space and Spatial Planning (EGEAT), Faculty of Earth Sciences and the Universe, Mohamed Ben Ahmed University of Oran 2, University Pole Belgaid, 31023 Bir el Djir, Algeria. Department of Marine Sciences and

10.21608/ejabf.2025.408033.6302

Abstract

Artemia brine shrimp, is a small anostracan crustacean that lives in hypersaline environments, valued as an irreplaceable live food, used in the early larval stages of various aquaculture species. Algeria has more than 24 sites (sabkha, chott, Salt Lake, etc.) that host two strains of Artemia: Artemia salina (sexual) and Artemia parthenogenetica (asexual). The aim of this study is to determine the density of Artemia populations (by conducting field sampling) in the natural environment. Four lakes in the northwest Algeria were under consideration to determine the variation in water extent as well as its vulnerability to climatic conditions, through the use of remote sensing platforms, which provide large databases of climatic data (temperature, rainfall ...etc.). However, the normalized difference water index (NDWI) and modified normalized difference water index (MNDWI) were the main indexes based on combination of spectral bands used to extract water bodies in our study, where the variation of surface water extent has been combined to different factors influencing the Artemia brine shrimp, to evaluate their production sustainability. The present study highlights that Artemia production in northwestern Algeria lakes is under threat not only from drought conditions but also from water shortages and pollution, where the recent recorded patterns indicate a period of low rainfall combined with the lake soil characteristics, subsequently influencing the total biomass of Artemia that remained at low abundant throughout the fieldwork period. In the face of these unfavorable conditions against the development of Artemia, the northwestern Algerian lake may only provide a very low quantity of its cysts, thereby compromising its sustainability if these conditions persist, which will interfere the proper development and production of Artemia for the Algerian market.

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