Skaith

Sampling Design

Sites And Species Lists

Pattern Analisys

List of Species in Skaith Lagoon

Skaith - Orkney Islands

Physical features
Physiographic type	Silled saline lagoon
Area	5 ha
Maximum lenght	0.3 km
Bathymetry	Maximum depth 0.3 m below loch datum
Wave exposure	Ultra sheltered
Tidal stream	Very weak
Tidal range	0.2 m
Salinity	5-18‰ (estimated)

Skaith (Latitude: 58° 56.4’N - Longitude: 58° 56.4’N) is a large lagoon located at the head of Waulkmill Bay on the south coast of Mainland. The lagoon is connected to the sea with a sill at high tide level.

The lagoon is 0.3 km in lenght, has a maximum depth of 0.3 m and a tidal range about 0.2m. Seawater enters the lagoon on most high tides, but the freshwater input from a stream at western end of Skaith is high enough to keep the salinity as low 2 ‰ at low tide.

The salinity range was estimated to be between 2‰ eand 18‰.

There is a very little effect from wave action and tidal currents affect only the small area around the entrance channel.

The lagoon, between 0 and 0.3 m depth,was a mixture of sand and gravel, covered by a thin layer of fine sand.

The sediment was dominated by the green alga Enteromorpha intestinalis.Occasional clumps of the brackish-water wrak Fucus ceranoides were present and colonised by epiphytic growths of ectocarpoid brown algae. The sediment had very sparse infauna and only the burrowing amphipod Corophium volutator was recorded.

References:

Thorpe, K. 1998.Marine Nature Conservation Reviews Sectors 1 & 2. Lagoons in Shetland and Orkney: area summaries. Peterborough, Joint Nature Conservation Committee. (Coasts and seas of the United Kingdom. MNCR series).