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Lagoon

December 02, 2023

This article is about the geographical feature. For other uses, see Lagoon (disambiguation).

A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons (or barrier lagoons) and atoll lagoons. They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries. Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world.

Balos coastal lagoon of northwestern Crete. The shallow lagoon is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by narrow shoals connecting to a small, rocky mountain.
Garabogazköl lagoon in Turkmenistan
Venetian Lagoon

Definition and terminology edit

Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a larger body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal, coral reef, or similar feature. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of "lagoon", while others explicitly restrict "lagoon" to bodies of water with some degree of salinity. The distinction between "lagoon" and "estuary" also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts "lagoon" to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, and calls any bay that receives a regular flow of fresh water an "estuary". Davis does state that the terms "lagoon" and "estuary" are "often loosely applied, even in scientific literature".[1] Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, elongated perpendicular to the coast.[1][2][3][4][5] Coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water.[6][7]

When used within the context of a distinctive portion of coral reef ecosystems, the term "lagoon" is synonymous with the term "back reef" or "backreef", which is more commonly used by coral reef scientists to refer to the same area.[8]

Many lagoons do not include "lagoon" in their common names. Currituck, Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds in North Carolina,[9] Great South Bay between Long Island and the barrier beaches of Fire Island in New York,[10] Isle of Wight Bay, which separates Ocean City, Maryland from the rest of Worcester County, Maryland,[11] Banana River in Florida, US,[12] Lake Illawarra in New South Wales, Australia,[13] Montrose Basin in Scotland,[14] and Broad Water in Wales have all been classified as lagoons, despite their names. In England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon.

In some languages the word for a lagoon is simply a type of lake: In Chinese a lake is hu (湖), and a lagoon is xihu (潟湖). In the French Mediterranean several lagoons are called étang ("lake"). Contrariwise, several other languages have specific words for such bodies of water. In Spanish, coastal lagoons generically are laguna costera, but those on the Mediterranean coast are specifically called albufera. In Russian and Ukrainian, those on the Black Sea are liman (лиман), while the generic word is laguna (Лагуна). Similarly, in the Baltic, Danish has the specific Nor [da], and German the specifics Bodden and Haff, as well as generic terms derived from laguna. In Poland these lagoons are called zalew ("bay"), in Lithuania marios ("lagoon, reservoir"). In Jutland several lagoons are known as fjord. In New Zealand the Māori word hapua refers to a coastal lagoon formed at the mouth of a braided river where there are mixed sand and gravel beaches, while waituna, an ephemeral coastal waterbody, is neither a true lagoon, lake nor estuary.[15]

Some languages differentiate between coastal and atoll lagoons. In French, lagon refers specifically to an atoll lagoon, while coastal lagoons are described as étang [fr], the generic word for a still lake or pond. In Vietnamese, Đầm san hô refers to an atoll lagoon, whilst Đầm phá is coastal.

In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which lagoon translates to, may be used for a small fresh water lake in a similar way a creek is considered a small river. However, sometimes it is popularly used to describe a full-sized lake, such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico, which is actually the third-largest lake by area in the country. The brackish water lagoon may be thus explicitly identified as a "coastal lagoon" (laguna costera). In Portuguese, a similar usage is found: lagoa may be a body of shallow seawater, or a small freshwater lake not linked to the sea.

Etymology edit

Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna, which refers to the waters around Venice, the Venetian Lagoon. Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to "lagune" by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a "Lagune or Lake of Salt water" on the coast of Mexico. Captain James Cook described an island "of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle" in 1769.[16]

Atoll lagoons edit

Further information: List of largest atolls
 
Satellite picture of the Atafu atoll in Tokelau in the Pacific Ocean

Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, until eventually only the reefs remain above sea level. Unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep (>20 m (66 ft)) portions.

Coastal lagoons edit

 
Anzali Lagoon in southwestern Caspian Sea coast, Iran
 
Coastal lagoon landscapes around the island of Hiddensee near Stralsund, Germany. Many similar coastal lagoons can be found around the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park.

Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop offshore, and the sea-level is rising relative to the land along the shore (either because of an intrinsic rise in sea-level, or subsidence of the land along the coast). Coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres (13 ft). Due to the gentle slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow. A relative drop in sea level may leave a lagoon largely dry, while a rise in sea level may let the sea breach or destroy barrier islands, and leave reefs too deep underwater to protect the lagoon. Coastal lagoons are young and dynamic, and may be short-lived in geological terms. Coastal lagoons are common, occurring along nearly 15 percent of the world's shorelines. In the United States, lagoons are found along more than 75 percent of the Eastern and Gulf Coasts.[3][4]

Coastal lagoons are usually connected to the open ocean by inlets between barrier islands. The number and size of the inlets, precipitation, evaporation, and inflow of fresh water all affect the nature of the lagoon. Lagoons with little or no interchange with the open ocean, little or no inflow of fresh water, and high evaporation rates, such as Lake St. Lucia, in South Africa, may become highly saline. Lagoons with no connection to the open ocean and significant inflow of fresh water, such as the Lake Worth Lagoon in Florida in the middle of the 19th century, may be entirely fresh. On the other hand, lagoons with many wide inlets, such as the Wadden Sea, have strong tidal currents and mixing. Coastal lagoons tend to accumulate sediments from inflowing rivers, from runoff from the shores of the lagoon, and from sediment carried into the lagoon through inlets by the tide. Large quantities of sediment may be occasionally be deposited in a lagoon when storm waves overwash barrier islands. Mangroves and marsh plants can facilitate the accumulation of sediment in a lagoon. Benthic organisms may stabilize or destabilize sediments.[3][4]

Largest coastal lagoons edit

"List of largest lagoons" redirects here. Not to be confused with List of largest atoll lagoons.

Regulation edit

In the European Union, coastal lagoon habitat is classified and under Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and wild flora and fauna (Habitats Directive). Furthermore, numerous bird species breed in coastal lagoons. As a result, many lagoons are also protected under Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of birds (Birds Directive).

Images edit

See also edit

External links edit

  • Coastal lagoon.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Davis, Richard A. Jr. (1994). The Evolving Coast. New York: Scientific American Library. pp. 101, 107. ISBN 978-0-7167-5042-0.
  2. ^ Allaby, Michael, ed. (1990). "Lagoon". Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921194-4.
  3. ^ a b c Kusky, Timothy, ed. (2005). "Lagoon". Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences. New York: Facts on File. p. 245. ISBN 0-8160-4973-4.
  4. ^ a b c Nybakken, James W., ed. (2003). "Lagoon". Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Marine Sciences. Vol. 2 G-O. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Academic Reference. pp. 189–90. ISBN 0-7172-5946-3.
  5. ^ Reid, George K. (1961). Ecology of Inland Waters and Estuaries. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. p. 74. ASIN B003MRW6AK.
  6. ^ Maurice L. Schwartz (2005). Encyclopedia of coastal science. Springer. p. 263. ISBN 978-1-4020-1903-6. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
  7. ^ Kjerfve, Björn (1994). "Coastal Lagoons". Coastal lagoon processes. Elsevier. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-0-444-88258-5.
  8. ^ Aronson, R. B. (1993). "Hurricane effects on backreef echinoderms of the Caribbean". Coral Reefs. 12 (3–4): 139–142. Bibcode:1993CorRe..12..139A. doi:10.1007/BF00334473. S2CID 879073.
  9. ^ Jia, Peng and Ming Li (2012). . Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 117 (C01003): C01003. Bibcode:2012JGRC..117.1003J. doi:10.1029/2011JC007124. Archived from the original on Aug 19, 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  10. ^ Goodbred, S. Jr., P. Locicero, V. Bonvento, S. Kolbe, S. Holsinger. "History of the Great South Bay estuary:Evidence of a catastrophic origin". State University of New York. Retrieved 24 March 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Boynton, W. R., J. D. Hagy, L. Murray, C. Stokes, W. M Kemp (June 1996). "A Comparative Analysis of Eutrophication Patterns in a Temperate Coastal Lagoon" (PDF). Estuaries. 19 (2B): 408–421. doi:10.2307/1352459. JSTOR 1352459. S2CID 14978943. Retrieved 24 March 2012.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ (PDF). United States Environmental Protection Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  13. ^ (PDF). Lake Illawarra Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 February 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2012.
  14. ^ Bird, Eric C. F. (2010). Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Vol. 1. Dordrecht: Springer. p. 485. ISBN 978-1-4020-8638-0.
  15. ^ Kirk, R.M. and Lauder, G.A (2000). Significant coastal lagoon systems in the South Island, New Zealand: coastal processes and lagoon mouth closure. Wellington, N.Z.: Department of Conservation. ISBN 0-478-21947-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ "Lagoon". Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. I A-O (Compact ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1971. p. 1560.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Lagoon.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lagoons.

December 02, 2023
lagoon, this, article, about, geographical, feature, other, uses, disambiguation, lagoon, shallow, body, water, separated, from, larger, body, water, narrow, landform, such, reefs, barrier, islands, barrier, peninsulas, isthmuses, commonly, divided, into, coas. This article is about the geographical feature For other uses see Lagoon disambiguation A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform such as reefs barrier islands barrier peninsulas or isthmuses Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons or barrier lagoons and atoll lagoons They have also been identified as occurring on mixed sand and gravel coastlines There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world Balos coastal lagoon of northwestern Crete The shallow lagoon is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by narrow shoals connecting to a small rocky mountain Garabogazkol lagoon in TurkmenistanVenetian Lagoon Contents 1 Definition and terminology 1 1 Etymology 2 Atoll lagoons 3 Coastal lagoons 3 1 Largest coastal lagoons 3 2 Regulation 4 Images 5 See also 6 External links 7 ReferencesDefinition and terminology editLagoons are shallow often elongated bodies of water separated from a larger body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal coral reef or similar feature Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of lagoon while others explicitly restrict lagoon to bodies of water with some degree of salinity The distinction between lagoon and estuary also varies between authorities Richard A Davis Jr restricts lagoon to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow and little or no tidal flow and calls any bay that receives a regular flow of fresh water an estuary Davis does state that the terms lagoon and estuary are often loosely applied even in scientific literature 1 Timothy M Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys elongated perpendicular to the coast 1 2 3 4 5 Coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water 6 7 When used within the context of a distinctive portion of coral reef ecosystems the term lagoon is synonymous with the term back reef or backreef which is more commonly used by coral reef scientists to refer to the same area 8 Many lagoons do not include lagoon in their common names Currituck Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds in North Carolina 9 Great South Bay between Long Island and the barrier beaches of Fire Island in New York 10 Isle of Wight Bay which separates Ocean City Maryland from the rest of Worcester County Maryland 11 Banana River in Florida US 12 Lake Illawarra in New South Wales Australia 13 Montrose Basin in Scotland 14 and Broad Water in Wales have all been classified as lagoons despite their names In England The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon In some languages the word for a lagoon is simply a type of lake In Chinese a lake is hu 湖 and a lagoon is xihu 潟湖 In the French Mediterranean several lagoons are called etang lake Contrariwise several other languages have specific words for such bodies of water In Spanish coastal lagoons generically are laguna costera but those on the Mediterranean coast are specifically called albufera In Russian and Ukrainian those on the Black Sea are liman liman while the generic word is laguna Laguna Similarly in the Baltic Danish has the specific Nor da and German the specifics Bodden and Haff as well as generic terms derived from laguna In Poland these lagoons are called zalew bay in Lithuania marios lagoon reservoir In Jutland several lagoons are known as fjord In New Zealand the Maori word hapua refers to a coastal lagoon formed at the mouth of a braided river where there are mixed sand and gravel beaches while waituna an ephemeral coastal waterbody is neither a true lagoon lake nor estuary 15 Some languages differentiate between coastal and atoll lagoons In French lagon refers specifically to an atoll lagoon while coastal lagoons are described as etang fr the generic word for a still lake or pond In Vietnamese Đầm san ho refers to an atoll lagoon whilst Đầm pha is coastal In Latin America the term laguna in Spanish which lagoon translates to may be used for a small fresh water lake in a similar way a creek is considered a small river However sometimes it is popularly used to describe a full sized lake such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico which is actually the third largest lake by area in the country The brackish water lagoon may be thus explicitly identified as a coastal lagoon laguna costera In Portuguese a similar usage is found lagoa may be a body of shallow seawater or a small freshwater lake not linked to the sea Etymology edit Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna which refers to the waters around Venice the Venetian Lagoon Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612 and had been Anglicized to lagune by 1673 In 1697 William Dampier referred to a Lagune or Lake of Salt water on the coast of Mexico Captain James Cook described an island of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle in 1769 16 Atoll lagoons editFurther information List of largest atolls nbsp Satellite picture of the Atafu atoll in Tokelau in the Pacific OceanAtoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside until eventually only the reefs remain above sea level Unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs atoll lagoons often contain some deep gt 20 m 66 ft portions Coastal lagoons edit nbsp Anzali Lagoon in southwestern Caspian Sea coast Iran nbsp Coastal lagoon landscapes around the island of Hiddensee near Stralsund Germany Many similar coastal lagoons can be found around the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop offshore and the sea level is rising relative to the land along the shore either because of an intrinsic rise in sea level or subsidence of the land along the coast Coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres 13 ft Due to the gentle slope of the coast coastal lagoons are shallow A relative drop in sea level may leave a lagoon largely dry while a rise in sea level may let the sea breach or destroy barrier islands and leave reefs too deep underwater to protect the lagoon Coastal lagoons are young and dynamic and may be short lived in geological terms Coastal lagoons are common occurring along nearly 15 percent of the world s shorelines In the United States lagoons are found along more than 75 percent of the Eastern and Gulf Coasts 3 4 Coastal lagoons are usually connected to the open ocean by inlets between barrier islands The number and size of the inlets precipitation evaporation and inflow of fresh water all affect the nature of the lagoon Lagoons with little or no interchange with the open ocean little or no inflow of fresh water and high evaporation rates such as Lake St Lucia in South Africa may become highly saline Lagoons with no connection to the open ocean and significant inflow of fresh water such as the Lake Worth Lagoon in Florida in the middle of the 19th century may be entirely fresh On the other hand lagoons with many wide inlets such as the Wadden Sea have strong tidal currents and mixing Coastal lagoons tend to accumulate sediments from inflowing rivers from runoff from the shores of the lagoon and from sediment carried into the lagoon through inlets by the tide Large quantities of sediment may be occasionally be deposited in a lagoon when storm waves overwash barrier islands Mangroves and marsh plants can facilitate the accumulation of sediment in a lagoon Benthic organisms may stabilize or destabilize sediments 3 4 Largest coastal lagoons edit This section may contain unverified or indiscriminate information in embedded lists Please help clean up the lists by removing items or incorporating them into the text of the article October 2023 List of largest lagoons redirects here Not to be confused with List of largest atoll lagoons New Caledonian lagoon 24 000 km2 9 300 sq mi Garabogazkol 18 000 km2 6 900 sq mi Lake Maracaibo 13 512 km2 5 217 sq mi Lagoa dos Patos 10 100 km 6 000 mi Mayotte lagoon 1 500 km 900 mi Rangiroa lagoon 1 446 km 900 mi Marovo Lagoon 700 km 400 mi Ebrie Lagoon 560 km 260 sq mi Regulation edit In the European Union coastal lagoon habitat is classified and under Directive 92 43 EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and wild flora and fauna Habitats Directive Furthermore numerous bird species breed in coastal lagoons As a result many lagoons are also protected under Directive 2009 147 EC on the conservation of birds Birds Directive Images edit nbsp Lagoa dos Patos the largest lagoon in South America in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul nbsp Aerial view of Bora Bora in French Polynesia nbsp Aerial view of Kivalina Alaska from the northwest nbsp Nearly half the area of Kiritimati is covered with lagoons some freshwater and some seawater nbsp Nusa Lembongan Lagoon Bali Indonesia nbsp Panoramic view of Lefkada City Lagoon Lefkada Isl Ionian Islands Prefecture Greece nbsp Panoramic view of Prokopos Lagoon Achaia Western Greece Prefecture Greece nbsp Tropical lagoon in Bacuit Bay Palawan Philippines nbsp Photo of Mar Menor as seen from International Space Station See also edit nbsp Wetlands portalAerated lagoon Albufera estuarine lagoon Anaerobic lagoon Ayre landform Barachois Braided river Coast Estuary Haff estuarine lagoon Longshore drift Sediment transportExternal links editCoastal lagoon References edit a b Davis Richard A Jr 1994 The Evolving Coast New York Scientific American Library pp 101 107 ISBN 978 0 7167 5042 0 Allaby Michael ed 1990 Lagoon Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 921194 4 a b c Kusky Timothy ed 2005 Lagoon Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences New York Facts on File p 245 ISBN 0 8160 4973 4 a b c Nybakken James W ed 2003 Lagoon Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Marine Sciences Vol 2 G O Danbury Connecticut Grolier Academic Reference pp 189 90 ISBN 0 7172 5946 3 Reid George K 1961 Ecology of Inland Waters and Estuaries New York Van Nostrand Reinhold Company p 74 ASIN B003MRW6AK Maurice L Schwartz 2005 Encyclopedia of coastal science Springer p 263 ISBN 978 1 4020 1903 6 Retrieved 31 March 2012 Kjerfve Bjorn 1994 Coastal Lagoons Coastal lagoon processes Elsevier pp 1 3 ISBN 978 0 444 88258 5 Aronson R B 1993 Hurricane effects on backreef echinoderms of the Caribbean Coral Reefs 12 3 4 139 142 Bibcode 1993CorRe 12 139A doi 10 1007 BF00334473 S2CID 879073 Jia Peng and Ming Li 2012 Circulation dynamics and salt balance in a lagoonal estuary Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans 117 C01003 C01003 Bibcode 2012JGRC 117 1003J doi 10 1029 2011JC007124 Archived from the original on Aug 19 2014 Retrieved 24 March 2012 Goodbred S Jr P Locicero V Bonvento S Kolbe S Holsinger History of the Great South Bay estuary Evidence of a catastrophic origin State University of New York Retrieved 24 March 2012 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Boynton W R J D Hagy L Murray C Stokes W M Kemp June 1996 A Comparative Analysis of Eutrophication Patterns in a Temperate Coastal Lagoon PDF Estuaries 19 2B 408 421 doi 10 2307 1352459 JSTOR 1352459 S2CID 14978943 Retrieved 24 March 2012 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Total Maximum Daily Loads for the North and Central Indian River Lagoon and Banana river Lagoon Florida PDF United States Environmental Protection Agency Archived from the original PDF on 24 September 2015 Retrieved 24 March 2012 Proposed Swimming Enclosure Net Entrance Lagoon Lake Illawarra PDF Lake Illawarra Authority Archived from the original PDF on 28 February 2011 Retrieved 24 March 2012 Bird Eric C F 2010 Encyclopedia of the World s Coastal Landforms Vol 1 Dordrecht Springer p 485 ISBN 978 1 4020 8638 0 Kirk R M and Lauder G A 2000 Significant coastal lagoon systems in the South Island New Zealand coastal processes and lagoon mouth closure Wellington N Z Department of Conservation ISBN 0 478 21947 4 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Lagoon Oxford English Dictionary Vol I A O Compact ed Oxford England Oxford University Press 1971 p 1560 nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Lagoon nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lagoons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lagoon amp oldid 1183819059, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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