|
| |
| |
| |
| Maximum depth 0.4 m below loch datum |
| |
| |
| |
| |
is located on north-east Mainland.
The lagoon connects to Wide Firth through a shingle bar at mid-tide level, via a narrow channel about 3m wide and 10m long.The lagoon is 0.3 km long, about 100 m wide, with a maximum depth of 0.4 m . The tidal range is less than 0.3m but the majority of the lagoon drains at low water to expose mudflats.
There is a very little disturbance from wave action or tidal currents.The lagoon is surrounded by grassland.The main basin of the lagoon, between 0.1 m height and 0.1m depth, consisted of soft anoxic mud. Most of the basin drains at low tide level. This habitat was dominated by a mat of the green algae
Enteromorpha intestinalis and
Enteromorpha prolifera.The entrance of channel consisted of pebbles and cobbles which lie between 0 and 0.4 m depth.
×
Water in silled lagoons is retained at all states of the tide by a barrier
of rock (the ‘sill’). There is usually little tidal rise-and-fall.
Seawater input is regular (i.e. on most tides) and although salinity
may be seasonally variable, it is usually high, except where the level
of the sill is near to high tide level. These lagoons are restricted
to the north and west of Scotland and may occur as sedimentary basins
or in bedrock (where they are called ‘oban’). Muddy areas are
dominated by filamentous green algae, amongst which may be colonies of
rare charophytes, such as foxtail stonewort Lamprothamnium
papulosum. There may be beds of tasselweed Ruppia spp.
and, in the deeper most stable lagoons, eelgrass Zostera marina.
