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Aliman is a wideestuary formed as alagoon at themouth of one or more rivers whereflow is constrained by a sedimentbar created by sea or rivercurrent. Thehydrological term comes from theRussian language and is used in various national and regional languages for estuary lagoons all around theBlack Sea andSea of Azov coasts.
Aliman is classified as eithermaritime orfluvial: "maritime" if its sediment bar was formed by sea current; "fluvial" if the bar is created by obstructed flow in a saturated river.[1]
Water in a liman isbrackish with variablesalinity. During periods of reduced fresh water intake, an especially deep liman or a liman at a very wide river mouth will have a higher salinity than its narrower and shallower counterparts due to greater seawater inflow andevaporation.
Examples of Black Sea limans include theDniester Liman and the Razelm Liman (Lake Razelm). The Russian name for the liman's mouth bar isperesyp. The termguba (губа) is used for non-significantly blocked estuaries in theRussian North.[2]
"Liman" comes from theGreek:λιμήν/λιμάν,romanized: limin/liman for "bay" or "port". The word next appeared asTurkish:liman, then asRussian:лиман,romanized: liman (Russian pronunciation:[lʲɪˈman]).[citation needed] The English term "limnology", meaning the study of inland aquatic ecosystems, is related to "liman" through the shared Greek root for "lake" or "sea",Greek:λιμήν,romanized: límnē—rendered in English as "limno–" or "limn–".
Limans are most prevalent on the western and northern Black Sea coasts; these are areas with lowtidal ranges. Examples include:Lake Varna inBulgaria;Lake Razelm inRomania; theDniester Liman inUkraine; andLake Büyükçekmece andLake Küçükçekmece in Turkey.
Russians also use the term "liman" for lagoons not on the Black Sea, for example theAnadyrskiy Liman andAmur Liman inSiberia.
