**Lake Conneware**

I have been thinking a lot about this lake in southeastern Australia as Ike bore down on my niece who lives close to a similar lake on the edge of Galveston Bay. They both are in relatively low lying areas, probably have varying salinity levels based on lake levels and tidal flow. They both are relatively shallow (certainly more shallow that the glacial lakes in my area).














So as I fretted along with everyone else about the storm surge, I remembered Lake Conneware. No storm surge there but it faced other shallow lake challenges - low water levels and correspondingly high salinity.











This lake was the location of E.'s research and we spent a morning there collecting mollusks (I think) and measured them. We are not talking 10 or 20 little shelled creatures, but about 700, most smaller than a pinky fingernail.









Then each little creature was counted and measured and released. These little dudes have an amazing ability to adapt to varying salinity levels. Ah, field research, how inspiring!