The Vth International Symposium on Inland Saline Lakes was held at Hotel Titikaka on the shores of that lake, 22—29 March 1991 with participants from 16 countries. Twenty-three papers presented by the participants, plus an additional one reporting a microcosm study on salinity effects, constitute the present volume. The papers cover the wide array of subject matters and scales characteristic of our 'interdiscipline' and represent the symposium well. All manuscripts submitted for these proceedings were critically reviewed by at least three referees and are representative of saline lake research, developed around the world in the three-year period since the last symposium.