Coastal Lake Systems

Abstract

To fulfill the definition being a "coastal lake" sensu lato, at least one property of a lake should have a relation to "coasts" or "oceans," e.g., (part of the) form, sediments, characteristic of the water, hydrodynamics (e.g., tides), or organisms. These lakes often exhibit bottom and shore topographies solely deriving from the basin-forming process. A coastal lake sensu stricto should be in a long period of its history a part of the sea, either in its early time, or in its younger existence and into the future. The latter generally are termed "lagoons," and many of them still have a (natural) connection to the open sea. Lagoons in most cases have an ocean-side barrier (barrier bars, barrier islands, spits, beaches, beach ridges, dune belts) formed by marine/littoral sediments and processes. These began to grow with slowing down of the postglacial sea level rise around 7,000 years BP (