Long term lake

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A long-term lake ( English ancient lake ) is understood to be a lake that has been carrying water continuously for at least a million years, because limnic standing waters are usually much younger. Numerous postglacial lakes (for example Lake Constance ) are less than 20,000 years old. The short existence of such standing waters is due to the regular entry of sediment through the tributaries. As a result, the lake silts up within a few millennia. Usually the reason for the long lifespan of long-term lakes lies in a geological formation. Here, for example, affects plate tectonics of silting contrary.

Biological importance of long-term lakes

In evolutionary biology , long-term lakes serve as nature's “laboratories”. In analogy to the well-known Galápagos Islands , such lakes form, so to speak, islands of water in the middle of an ocean of land. Due to the long lifespan, species that are only native to the respective lake can often develop in such isolated habitats: so-called endemic species. Evolutionary biologists examine the peculiarities and conditions that led to the emergence of new species within an ecosystem of the lake that is manageable compared to the land or ocean. In Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa , for example, the radiation of cichlids is being studied. A center of evolutionary research on the molluscs endemic there is located in Lake Ohrid in Europe .

Selected long-term lakes