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LAKE BRATAN |
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+Bratan is the shallowest confined lake in Bali, but yet very heavily under the pressure of recreational activities, motor boating and other outdoor activities, hotels and restaurants. The temple of Pura Ulun Danu (Goddess of the Lake) is at the lake. There are several big outboard engines for a small (3.9 km2) and shallow (22 meters) lake, the biggest being more than 200 horse powers.
Attention to this fact has been drawn already some 18 years ago (Lehmusluoto 1977 a). Some small scale agriculture is maintained around the lake. The lake was weakly stratified (RTR 19.0, 41.5 and 72.6) when visited. Schmitz (1994) claims that the lake is thermo- and chemostratified. Its water is the most dilute of the studied lakes, conductivity being 22-27 µS/cm and alkalinity from 0.18 to 0.20 meq/l. The nutrient concentrations were also relatively low, but total nitrogen showed some elevated values (0.310-1.310 mg/l N) compared to some earlier studies (Lehmusluoto & Badruddin 1989). Total phosphorus values were from undetectable to 0.002 mg/l P. The chlorophyll a concentrations were from 5.59 to 7.33 mg/m3. In September 1992 the conjugatophyte Staurastrum cf. tetracerum was a strong dominant, 97 % of the total biomass, which was 4.4 mg/l. The lake shows some signs of beginning eutrophication, which has also been observed by Green et al. (1994). Transparency is 1.8 meters.
Lake
Bratan has the Pura Ulun Danu temple of the Goddess of
the lake. Nevertheless, the small water volume of the closed lake is a great problem when
population, agriculture and tourism threaten the lake. |
