Lake Engure (Latvian: ) is a shallow coastal

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in the

Gulf of Riga The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia (, , ) is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. The island of Saaremaa (Estonia) partially separates it from the rest of the Baltic Sea. The main connection between the gulf and t ...

of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, located in north-western

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

(

Talsi district Talsi district () was a district of Latvia, located in Courland region, in the country's west. It was one of the former 26 rural districts of Latvia and it consisted of 20 local communities. Districts were eliminated on 20 June 2009 as the result ...

). It is the third largest lake in the country after

Lake Lubāns Lake Lubāns is the largest lake in Latvia (in Latvian: ''Lubāns'', ''Lubānas ezers'' or ''Lubāna ezers''). The lake lies in the center of the Eastern Latvian Lowland. It is a shallow drainage lake, fed by the Rēzekne, Malta, Malmuta and L ...

and Lake Rāzna. Covering about 45 km² within a 644 km²

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

, it is the largest relict water body along Latvia's coast. The lake formed as a remnant of the

Littorina Sea Littorina Sea (also Litorina Sea) is a geological brackish water stage of the Baltic Sea, which existed around 8500–4000 Before Present, BP and followed the Mastogloia Sea (initial Littorina Sea), a transitional stage from the Ancylus Lake. ...

roughly 4,000 years ago and lies at the heart of the Lake Engure Nature Park, a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

protected under the Ramsar Convention (1971). The whole lake and its vicinity have been included in the Lake Engure Nature Park since 1999, although the first natural reserve was established here in 1957. It contains a floating base for

ornithologists __NOTOC__ This is a list of ornithologists who have articles, in alphabetical order by surname. See also :Ornithologists. A * John Abbot – US * Clinton Gilbert Abbott – US * William Louis Abbott – US * Humayun Abdulali — India * Joseph ...

Geography and hydrology

Lake Engure occupies a low-lying basin bounded to the west by the long, sandy Engure Spit, which separates it from the open sea. In 1842, the digging of the Mērsrags Canal lowered the lake's water level by some 1.5 m and halved its surface area, creating today’s uniformly shallow profile. The lake's average depth is just 0.4 m, with a maximum of 2.1 m; inflow comes from several small rivers in its drainage basin, while the canal maintains a direct exchange with the Gulf of Riga, moderating both water level and salinity.

Ecology

The lake's clear-water state is maintained by extensive beds of

charophyte Charophyta () is a paraphyletic group of freshwater green algae, called charophytes (), sometimes treated as a division, yet also as a superdivision. The terrestrial plants, the Embryophyta emerged deep within Charophyta, possibly from terres ...

algae, which absorb and sequester

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

, thereby preventing

algal bloom An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in fresh water or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompass ...

s. Its shoreline habitats range from dense

reed bed A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

s and open mesic meadows to

oligotrophic An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates o ...

pine forests atop the sandy

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s of the Engure Spit. Fish surveys record 16 resident species, down from over 20 in the 1930s—a decline linked to historic water-level alterations. Lake Engure is of international importance for

water bird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s, supporting more than 180 breeding species and serving as a crucial staging post on migratory

flyway A flyway is a flight path used by large numbers of birds while migrating between their breeding grounds and their overwintering quarters. Flyways generally span continents and often pass over oceans. Although applying to any species of migrat ...

Conservation and management

As part of the Lake Engure Nature Park, the lake and its surrounding wetlands have been protected under the Ramsar Convention since 1995 and incorporated into the

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectiv ...

network in 2004. Management measures include regulated water-level control, periodic removal of overgrown reeds and shrubs to maintain open nesting sites, and

predator control Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

targeting invasive

American mink The American mink (''Neogale vison'') is a semiaquatic species of Mustelidae, mustelid native to North America, though human introduction has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. Because of range expansion, the Am ...

(''Neovison vison'') and

raccoon dog ''Nyctereutes'' (Greek: ''nyx, nykt-'' "night" + ''ereutēs'' "wanderer") is a genus of canid which includes only two extant species, both known as raccoon dogs: the common raccoon dog (''Nyctereutes procyonoides'') and the Japanese raccoon do ...

(''Nyctereutes procyonoides''). Ongoing, long-term ecological monitoring by national and local agencies informs adaptive conservation practices that aim to balance habitat preservation with sustainable regional land use.

References

External links

*
Nature Conservation Plan for Nature Park "Lake Engure"
*
www.ezeri.lv database
{{Authority control

Engure Engure is a village in Engure Parish, in the northern part of Tukums municipality in the Courland region of Latvia, at the sea shore of the Gulf of Riga The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia (, , ) is a bay of the Baltic Sea b ...

Ramsar sites in Latvia Important Bird Areas of Latvia