Lough Furnace () is a tidally-influenced,
meromictic
A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters.
The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austria ...
, saline
lagoon
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'') an ...
in
County Mayo
County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, located south of
Lough Feeagh
Lough Feeagh () is a freshwater lake in County Mayo, Ireland. It is the largest of the lakes in the Burrishoole catchment, which consists of seven lakes and interconnecting rivers and streams. Lough Feeagh is one of the lakes observed and stu ...
. It receives freshwater inflow from the upstream Lough Feeagh at the base of the Burrishoole Catchment and tidal input of saline water from Clew Bay, through the Burrishoole Estuary.
The lagoonal estuary is notable for the perennially anoxic deep water in the main inner basin. Tidal currents transport salty, dense oceanic water from Clew Bay into the inner basin and river inflows form a buoyant seaward surface layer. The large density contrast between these two water layers limits vertical mixing and the salty, dense bottom water becomes isolated and develops stagnant, anoxic conditions. Given the highly unusual physical environment, Furnace has served as a model system for important ecologically-motivated research including the population dynamics of euryhaline invertebrates, a paleolimnological reconstruction of its evolution toward anoxic conditions, which appears to have occurred at ca. 3400 calendar years before present, divergent evolution in fish ecotypes, bio-physical interactions between benthic fish and internal waves and dynamics of sub-surface chlorophyll maxima.
Lough Furnace is the lower part of the Burrishoole fishery. It contains
salmon
Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...
,
grilse
Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family Salmonidae, native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (''Salmo'') and North Pa ...
and
sea trout
Sea trout is the common name usually applied to anadromous (sea-run) forms of brown trout (''Salmo trutta''), and is often referred to as ''Salmo trutta'' morpha ''trutta''. Other names for anadromous brown trout are bull trout, sewin (Wales ...
.
See also
*
List of loughs in Ireland
This is an alphabetical list of loughs (lakes) on the island of Ireland. It also shows a table of the largest loughs. The word ''loch, lough'' is pronounced like ''loch'' () and comes from the Irish language, Irish ''loch'', meaning ''lake''.
Acc ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furnace
Lakes of County Mayo