OutdoorNebraska

38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 GUIDE TO NEBRASKA'S WETLANDS T hese wetlands have saline (salty) or alkaline (basic) chemical characteristics. The complexes in Nebraska include the Eastern Saline and the Western Alkaline. There also are some highly alkaline wetlands in the western Sandhills that are covered in the Sandhills Complex section. Additionally, moderately saline and alkaline wetlands are found in scattered pockets along much of the Platte River and in a few other regions of the state. Saline wetland soil and water pH ranges from about 7 to 7.5, whereas alkaline wetland pH is typically greater than 8.5. Annual precipitation in saline wetlands is typically 31 inches per year, whereas in western alkaline wetlands it is about 15 to 18 inches per year. Eastern Saline wetlands are comprised primarily of sulfate and/or chloride-based salts. The salinization of these wetlands can occur more quickly than through evaporation alone due to highly saline groundwater discharge into the wetlands. In western Nebraska, alkaline wetlands are sodium carbonate and calcium carbonate based. A combination of low precipitation in the North Platte valley and western Sandhills, along with topography and soil type, limits runoff and decreases the amount of leaching of accumulated salts in the soil. The salinization of alkaline wetlands has occurred over thousands of years through advective accumulation (Ong 2010). In other words, the repeating cycle of evaporation in these semi-arid regions has accumulated salts. EASTERN SALINE Profi le For generations the Omaha Tribe collected salt from the wetlands in the vicinity of Lincoln, a place that they called Nithskithe (Welsch 2022). Eastern Saline wetlands are of additional historical signifi cance as their presence spawned a short-lived salt mining industry in the 1860s that led to the establishment of the city of Lincoln (Cunningham 1985). Eastern Saline wetlands occur in lower places, such as swales and depressions, within the fl oodplains of Salt Creek and its tributaries in Lancaster and southern Saunders counties. The wetlands receive their salinity from groundwater that is under pressure and rises to the surface in stream valleys of Salt Creek and its tributaries. The groundwater originated along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, and becomes salty Saline and Alkaline Wetlands

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