Lake St. Lucia
South Africa · Africa
About
Lake St Lucia (also Lake Saint Lucia) is an estuarine lake system in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is the largest estuarine lake in Africa and in Southern Africa, covering an area of approximately 325–350 km2 (125–135 sq mi) and accounting for roughly 80% of KwaZulu-Natal's total estuarine area. The lake forms the central feature of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was inscribed in December 1999, and it has been designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance since 1986.
The lake system is noted for its extreme environmental variability. Salinity levels fluctuate from near-freshwater conditions to more than 200 parts per thousand (ppt), nearly six times the salinity of seawater, making Lake St Lucia a global reference system for estuarine research. More than 60 years of peer-reviewed scientific research culminated in the 2013 Cambridge University Press monograph Ecology and Conservation of Estuarine Ecosystems: Lake St Lucia as a Global Model.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.