Seasonal features of inland saline lakes have not been studied to any extent with the exception of investigations by ANDERSON (1958) and CASTENHOLZ (1960) on several Washington state lakes ; COLE, WHITESIDE & BROWN (1967) on two shallow Arizona salt ponds, NORTHCOTE & HALSEY (1969) and SCUDDER,(1969) on several saline systems in southern British Columbia and BAYLEY & WILLIAMS (1966) on several saline lakes in southern Australia . Literature on the seasonal physical-chemical phenomena in semi-permanent systems is meagre .
The southern interior of British Columbia lends itself to such seasonal studies with easy accessibility to a number of saline habitats of varying ionic proportions and salinities . Many shallow basins in this region fill with water during spring runoff, followed by extensive evaporation during the summer months which results in total or partial drying of the basins .
It was the purpose of this investigation to examine and compare the seasonal dynamics of major ions in several permanent and semipermanent saline habitats in this region and discuss the significance of these occurrences on a certain alga . All of these habitats are located west of Kamloops (Fig. 1) in the dry belt of southern British Columbia . Two shallow permanent lakes (Wallender and Bowers) with spring maximum depth of less than 1 .5 m and three semi-perma-