Large numbers of local and migratory birds feed on brine shrimp during the spring and summer. The shrimp also may graze on diatoms that colonize cast-off exoskeleton parts from shrimp molts. When the shrimp are stressed by lack of food or harsh environmental conditions, they switch from producing live young to producing cysts. Some of these cysts are commercially harvested and some remain in the lake to start the shrimp population the following year. The Benthic habitat relies on photosynthesis by the blue-greens and other benthic algae to produce much of the food needed by benthic grazers.
Additional food comes in the form of detritus that settles from the water.
In the springtime, after the shrimp have grazed the phytoplankton from the water, light penetrates to the bottom of the lake in many areas and provides energy for benthic photosynthesis by algae and the blue-greens. These small insects spend their larval existence on the bottom of Great Salt Lake. They emerge from the lake as adults in early summer and form dense clouds that cover the beach and everything on the beach. Although they may be annoying, they do not bite. Although the planktonic and benthic habitats seem to be separate, they are linked.