Multiple extreme environmental conditions of intermittent soda pans in the Carpathian Basin (Central Europe)

•Soda pans can be highly turbid, alkaline, polyhumic, and hypertrophic habitats.•Some pans are among the most turbid aquatic ecosystems in the world.•Due to their shallowness, water temperature undergoes high daily fluctuations.•The combination of environmental boundaries creates an extreme aquatic ecosystem.

Soda lakes and pans represent saline ecosystems with unique chemical composition, occurring on all continents. The purpose of this study was to identify and characterise the main environmental gradients and trophic state that prevail in the soda pans (n = 84) of the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe. Underwater light conditions, dissolved organic matter, phosphorus and chlorophyll a were investigated in 84 pans during 2009-2010. Besides, water temperature was measured hourly with an automatic sensor throughout one year in a selected pan. The pans were very shallow (median depth: 15 cm), and their extremely high turbidity (Secchi depth median: 3 cm, min: 0.5 cm) was caused by high concentrations of inorganic suspended solids (median: 0.4 g L−1, max: 16 g L−1), which was the dominant (>50%) contributing factor to the vertical attenuation coefficient in 67 pans (80%). All pans were polyhumic (median DOC: 47 mg L−1), and total phosphorus concentration was also extremely high (median: 2 mg L−1, max: 32 mg L−1). The daily water temperature maximum (44 °C) and fluctuation maximum (28 °C) were extremely high during summertime. The combination of environmental boundaries: shallowness, daily water temperature fluctuation, intermittent hydroperiod, high turbidity, polyhumic organic carbon concentration, high alkalinity and hypertrophy represent a unique extreme aquatic ecosystem.