Lagoon; Лагуна; Laguun; Laguuni

(1) A shallow marine (sometimes brackish to hypersaline) coastal water body, receiving little if any fluvial input, separated from the sea by a restricted inlet usually having a sill. (2) Lagoons are expansions of shallow coastal salt water, of varying salinity and water volume, wholly or partially separated from the sea by sand banks or shingle, or, less frequently, by rocks. Salinity may vary from brackish water to hypersalinity depending on rainfall, evaporation and on the addition of fresh seawater from storms, temporary flooding of the sea in winter or tidal exchange. With or without vegetation from genera Ruppia sp., Potamogeton sp., Zoster asp. or Chara sp. Flads and gloes, considered a Baltic variety of lagoons, are small, usually shallow, more or less delimited water bodies still connected to the sea or have been cut off from the sea very recently by land upheaval. Characterized by well-developed reedbeds and luxuriant submerged vegetation and having several morphological and botanical development stages in the process whereby sea becomes land. Salt basins and salt ponds may also be considered as lagoons, providing they had their origin on a transformed natural old lagoon or on a saltmarsh, and are characterized by a minor impact from exploitation. (EU’s Habitats Directive underwater habitats,http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/legislation/habitatsdirective/docs/Int_Manual_EU28.pdf)