Paper discusses the various definitions of coastal lagoons, and reports on surveys of lagoons carried out around the British mainland coast and the Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Hebrides and the Western Isles [i.e. excluding Orkney and Shetland obs and >isolated brackish/saline ponds=, which do not fall within Barnes= definition of lagoons, as they are not retained by an >isolating barrier beach, spit or chain of barrier islands=]. Correlation and regression analysis of size of lagoon, number of specialist lagoonal species and species richness was performed using data from 52 lagoonal sites in Britain. The Fleet was >by far the largest lagoon included in the analysis and it possesses the largest fauna and the greatest number of lagoonal specialists= [Loch Maddy lagoons, Loch Eport lagoons and Orkney and Shetland lagoons were not included in this analysis in the UK, although the Fleet=s flora and fauna is still the best studied]. Overall species richness of lagoons was positively correlated with the number of specialist lagoonal species present (with and without the Fleet included in the analysis), and lagoonal area was marginally negatively correlated, less strongly when the Fleet was excluded from the analysis. The Fleet is listed as the >best representative of its type=. [This analysis could usefully be repeated based on the now more extensive information on coastal lagoons, in particular from northern and western Scotland]. No information of relevance to water quality in this paper.

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