Lake Matano ( id, Danau Matano), also known as Matana, is a natural
lake in
East Luwu Regency
East Luwu Regency is the most easterly of the twenty-one regencies in South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. Malili is the capital of East Luwu Regency. The population of East Luwu Regency was 243,069 at the 2010 Census and 296,741 at the 2020 C ...
,
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...
province,
Indonesia. With a depth of , it is the deepest lake in Indonesia (ranked by maximum depth), the 10th
deepest lake in the world and the deepest lake on an island by maximum depth. The surface elevation from
mean sea level is only , which means that the deepest portion of the lake is below sea level (
cryptodepression). It is one of the two major lakes (the other being
Lake Towuti) in the Malili Lake system.
Endemic animals and plants
Lake Matano is home to many species of
endemic fish and other animals (e.g. ''
Caridina'' shrimps,
Parathelphusid crabs and ''
Tylomelania
''Tylomelania'' is a genus of freshwater snails which have an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Pachychilidae. In the aquarium hobby, snails from this genus are commonly known as "rabbit snails" (not to be confused with sea ...
'' snails) as well as many plants. The endemic fishes of Matano have been compared to the
species swarms of the
Rift Valley Lakes
The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's ...
of Africa. While not as diverse, they are thought to have all arisen from a single ancestor species and diversified into numerous different species, which now fill many of the previously vacant
ecological niches, as can be seen in the family
Telmatherinidae
The Telmatherininae, the sail-fin silversides are a subfamily of Atheriniformes, atheriniform fish from the rainbowfish family, the Melanotaeniidae, inhabiting fresh and brackish water. All but the species ''Kalyptatherina helodes'' are restricte ...
. Endemic and near-endemic fishes from other families include ''
Glossogobius matanensis
''Glossogobius matanensis'' is a species of goby endemic to Sulawesi, Indonesia where it is only known from Lake Matano, Lake Mahalona
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any r ...
'', ''
Mugilogobius adeia
''Mugilogobius adeia'' is a species of goby endemic to Lake Matano on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi where it inhabits areas with a number of shells of the gastropod
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large ...
'', ''
Nomorhamphus weberi
''Nomorhamphus weberi'' is a species of viviparous halfbeak endemic to Lake Matano in Sulawesi, Indonesia. This species can reach a length of SL. The specific name honours the Dutch ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devote ...
'' and ''
Oryzias matanensis
''Oryzias matanensis'', the Matano ricefish, is a species of fish in the family Adrianichthyidae. It is endemic to Lake Matano in Sulawesi, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Ocea ...
''. Many of the endemics are seriously threatened due to pollution and predation/competition from a wide range of
introduced fishes, including
flowerhorn cichlid
Flowerhorn cichlids are ornamental aquarium fish noted for their vivid colors and the distinctively shaped heads for which they are named. Their head protuberance is formally called a Nuchal lines, nuchal hump. Like blood parrot cichlids, they ar ...
s.
The water snake ''
Enhydris matannensis
''Enhydris'' is a genus of slightly venomous, rear-fanged, snakes in the family Homalopsidae. The genus is endemic to the tropical area of Indo-Australian region.
Species
The following 6 species are recognized:
* ''Enhydris chanardi'' Murph ...
'' is only known from the vicinity of Lake Matano and on
Muna Island
Muna (Pulau Muna) is an island in the Southeast Sulawesi province of Indonesia with an area of and had a population of 316,293 at the 2010 Census and 368,654 at the 2020 Census.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. It is just southeast of the i ...
.
Chemistry
Below the top layer of oxygenated water, Lake Matano's depths are
anoxic, free of sulfates, and rich in iron.
[
] These conditions make Lake Matano an analog for Earth's oceans during the
Archean Eon,
[
] which is useful for studying relationships between anoxygenic
phototrophs and
banded iron formations.
[
] The lake contains a population of
green sulfur bacteria that conducts photosynthesis with
bacteriochlorophyll ''e''.
Lake Matano Festival
To lure foreign tourists of the beauty of Lake Matano and surrounding as a new icon of
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi ( id, Sulawesi Selatan) is a province in the southern peninsula of Sulawesi. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital is Makassar. The province is bordered by Central Sula ...
, the first annually Lake Matano Festival was held in May 2015 with some attractions such as competition of running, cycling and swimming.
See also
*
List of lakes of Indonesia
References
{{Authority control
Matano
Lake Matano ( id, Danau Matano), also known as Matana, is a natural lake in East Luwu Regency, South Sulawesi province, Indonesia. With a depth of , it is the deepest lake in Indonesia (ranked by maximum depth), the 10th deepest lake in the wo ...
Landforms of South Sulawesi