The wider Lake Manyara basin social-ecological system suffers from multiple environmental problems due to unsustainable land and water use. Lake Manyara is partly protected within the Lake Manyara National Park and is one of the seven Tanzanian, UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserves. Furthermore, all over the catchment there are numerous game reserves, conservation areas, forest reserves, wildlife management areas and numerous villages and touristic infrastructures (roads, lodges and tented camps). Southeast of LM another large and famous national park (Tarangire) is located. The drier and more unpredictable savannas are used for livestock grazing by pastoralists (mainly Maasai). The wetter and productive uplands all over the catchment are mostly used for rain-fed agriculture by various ethnicities depending on historical migration and resettlement patterns. In the rift valley South of the lake vast river floodplains are used for irrigation agriculture. On its Western side there is a groundwater forest extending between the lake shore and the rift escarpment and covered mostly by the National Park until the Marang' forest. The shores of the saline lake host at its Northern tip the town of Mto wa Mbu with its irrigation agriculture. Several springs, streams, wetlands and smaller lakes, both perennial and seasonal, drain into the lake. The Western side of the lake is flanked by a steep rift escarpment, to the North are the Ngorongoro highlands, while in the East and Southeast an undulating plain with isolated volcanic mountains gives way to a peneplain. These alkaline flats sprout into grasslands, attracting grazing animals, including large herds of buffalo, wildebeest and zebra. During dry spells, large areas of mud flats become exposed along the shore. The water becomes increasingly brackish in the dry season as water evaporates and salts accumulate. Lake Manyara is a soda or alkaline lake with a pH near 9.5, and it is also high in dissolved salts. In extreme dry periods the surface area of the lake shrinks as the waters evaporate and at times the lake has dried up completely. In 2010, a bathymetry survey showed the lake to have an average depth 0.81 m, and a maximum depth of about 1.18 m. At its maximum, during the wet season, the lake is 40 km wide by 15 km with a maximum depth of 3.7 m. The lake's depth and the area it covers fluctuates significantly. It is fed by underground springs, but the vast majority of the inflow comes from rainwater fed permanent and ephemeral rivers that drain the surrounding catchment. The lake is in a closed basin with no outflow, wherein water is only lost by evaporation. Lake Manyara has a catchment area of about 18,372 km 2 with elevations between 938 m and 3633 m above sea level. Another theory is that the Mbugwe tribe, who live in the Lake Manyara area, may have given the lake its name based on the Mbugwe word manyero, meaning a trough or place where animals drink water. Possibly the 600 m high rift escarpment hems in the lake, like the enclosure around a Maasai boma. The name Manyara may come from the Maasai word "emanyara", which is the spiky, protective enclosure around a family homestead (boma). There are differing explanations for how Lake Manyara got its name. The northwest quadrant of the lake (about 200 sq, km.) is included within Lake Manyara National Park and it is part of the Lake Manyara Biosphere Reserve, established in 1981 by UNESCO as part of its Man and the Biosphere Programme. It is a shallow, alkaline lake in the Natron-Manyara-Balangida branch of the East African Rift. Lake Manyara is a lake located in Monduli District of Arusha Region, Tanzania and is the seventh-largest lake of Tanzania by surface area, at 470-square-kilometre (180 sq mi). Lake Manyara, the cliff after the sunset. Simba River (from the north), Makayuni River (from the east)
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