A novel alkaliphilic and moderately halophilic gram-positive coccus, designated strain T8T, was isolated from Baer Soda Lake in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Strain T8T grew in the presence of 0-25% (w/v) NaCl and at pH 6.5-11.5, with optimum growth at 10% (w/v) NaCl and pH 9.0. It grew at 10.0-46.0 degrees C, with an optimum growth temperature of 32.0 degrees C. The organism was strictly aerobic, non-motile, non-sporulating and catalase- and oxidase-positive. The DNA G+C content was 49.6 mol%. The cell wall contained Lys and Gly. The major isoprenoid quinone was menaquinone 6 (MK-6). Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rDNA sequence comparisons indicate that strain T8T is a member of the genus Salinicoccus. DNA-DNA relatedness of less than 50% with the described species of Salinicoccus supported the view that this organism represents a novel species of the genus Salinicoccus. The name Salinicoccus alkaliphilus sp. nov. is proposed for this novel species. The type strain is T8T (= AS 1.2691T = JCM 11311T).