Uet era Ongael (Ongael Lake) is a marine

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 ...

located on

Ongael Island Ongael Island is an island in Koror State, Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 isla ...

Koror Koror is the state comprising the main commercial centre of the Republic of Palau. It consists of several islands, the most prominent being Koror Island (also ''Oreor Island''). It is Palau’s most populous state. History In the oral tradition of ...

, in

Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...

. There are about 70 other marine lakes located throughout the

Rock Islands The Rock Islands of Palau, also called ''Chelbacheb'', are a collection of several hundred small limestone or coral uprises in the Southern Lagoon of Palau between Koror and Peleliu, now an incorporated part of Koror State. There are between ...

and Koror. Uet era Ongael is notable for

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

subspecies of golden

jellyfish Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...

and is one of five marine lakes in Palau used for several scientific researches in

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

, the other lakes being

Jellyfish Lake Jellyfish Lake () is a marine lake located on Eil Malk island in Palau. Eil Malk is a part of the Rock Islands, a group of small, rocky, mostly uninhabited islands in Palau's Southern Lagoon, between Koror and Peleliu. There are about 70 other ma ...

, Clear Lake, Uet era Ngermeuangel and Goby Lake.

Golden jellyfish

Uet era Ongael is connected to the ocean through fissures and tunnels in the limestone of ancient

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

reefs. However the lake is sufficiently isolated and the conditions are different enough that the diversity of species in the lake is greatly reduced from the nearby lagoon. The golden jellyfish ''

Mastigias ''Mastigias'' is a genus of true jellyfish in the family Mastigiidae. It contains seven described species. Members of this genus are found widely in coastal regions of the Indo-Pacific, including saline lakes of Palau (e.g., Jellyfish Lake), but ...

cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...

'' papua remengesaui'' is substantially different from their close relatives living in the nearby lagoons. This is the most ornate of Palau lake jellyfishes, with solid white spots; younger jellyfish have a pale blue color. The small lake is also home to jellyfish of other species ('' Aurelia'' sp., ''

Cassiopea ''Cassiopea'' (upside-down jellyfish) is a genus of Scyphozoa, true jellyfish and members of the family Cassiopeidae. They are found in warmer coastal regions around the world, including shallow mangrove swamps, mudflats, canals, and turtle gras ...

'' sp.).

Lake morphology

Uet era Ongael is the smallest and shallowest Palau lake with registered endemic subspecies of jellyfish. The lake is

holomictic Holomictic lakes are lakes that have a uniform temperature and density from surface to bottom at a specific time during the year, which allows the lake waters to mix in the absence of stratification. Details Holomictic lakes mix at least occa ...

- it does not have layers as it is comparatively shallow and with low banks, permitting for winds and sea tides to mix the water.

References

External links

Wondermondo: Uet era Ongael - marine lake of jellyfish
{{Koror Saline lakes of Palau