The Lagoa de Antela in figures: area, water and habitats

The Lagoa de Antela had no fixed boundaries: it grew in winter and shrank in summer, and so the authors who measured it give very different figures. This page gathers the estimates recorded by the Sociedade Galega de Historia Natural (SGHN) in its study of the Limia wetland complex, based mainly on Villarino and others (2002) and González and Villarino (2001) ^[1][2]. The general description of the lagoon is in The original lagoon.

The plain of A Limia

The plain of A Limia covers about 30,000 hectares at 600–620 m altitude, in the centre-south of the province of Ourense, between 42°01’37" and 42°10’12" north latitude ^[1]. It is formed by the semi-endorheic morphotectonic depression of the old lagoon and its mountain frame, roughly "V"-shaped: a main arm running north-east–south-west, along which the Antela outlet runs, and a secondary one running east–west, crossed by the Limia river ^[1]. Administratively the SGHN lists the concellos of Bande, Rairiz de Veiga, Vilar de Santos, Sandiás, Xunqueira de Ambía, Vilar de Barrio, Sarreaus, Trasmiras, Xinzo de Limia and Porqueira ^[1]. The lagoon occupied part of the plain, at the intersection of Sandiás, Xunqueira de Ambía, Vilar de Barrio, Sarreaus and Xinzo de Limia ^[1].

How big was it? The estimates

The boundaries were imprecise and shifting with annual rainfall, which explains why the figures vary so much by source ^[1]:

Source	Estimate
Madoz (1847), from Fontán’s map	1 league north to south and 1 ¼ east to west, with eight feet depth at the deepest. The SGHN calculates from Fontán’s map (1845) a lagoon area of 2,630 ha
Mugártegui Parga (1866), Íscar and Mugártegui’s project	5,870 ha, including the floodable meadows of Vilar de Santos, Rairiz de Veiga and Porqueira
Risco (1928)	6 km long and 4 km wide, 3 m deep in the rainy season and 1 m at most in summer
Conde Valvís (1938)	30,272,765.3 m²
Dantín (1942)	5,800 ha
Fernández (1967)	draining of 4,000 flooded ha, but 3,243.7 ha as land "reclaimed for cultivation"
Taboada Chivite (1969)	about 8,000 ha of barren surface, 0.25 to 2 m deep
Rivas (1985)	4,000 ha, 3 m maximum depth and about 12,000 ha of intermediate zone
Villarino and others (2002)	3,795 ha of surface delimited as lagoon in the first edition (1942–43) of the National Map

The seasonal cycle

Villarino and others (2002) calculated the area flooded in winter from the 1942–43 topographic map, the «Plano General de la Laguna de Antela» (quote) drawn up in 1958 by the agronomist engineer responsible for the draining, the American flight of August 1955 and the 1957 cadastre. The result was about 6,900–7,500 ha flooded, of which ^[3]:

• 3,420 ha would correspond to the lagoon proper;
• 1,500–2,000 ha to the perimeter meadows of Antela (Sandiás, Xunqueira de Ambía, Vilar de Barrio and Sarreaus);
• 1,063 ha to the south-east meadows, in the flood plains of the Limia, Trasmiras and Veiga stream (Sarreaus, Trasmiras and Xinzo de Limia);
• 246 ha to the southern meadows, those of the Limia, Nocelo and Faramontaos rivers (Trasmiras and Xinzo de Limia);
• 896 ha to the south-west meadows, those of the Antela outlet and the Limia, Fírbeda and Vidueiro rivers (Rairiz de Veiga, Vilar de Santos, Sandiás, Xinzo de Limia and Porqueira).

In "normal" summer low-water periods the minimum area was estimated at 1,500–1,600 ha, about 1,340 ha in the lagoon itself and 150–250 ha in the meadows ^[3]. According to the 1958 plan, the area below the 616.5 m contour was 143 ha, that of 616.5–617.0 m was 1,064 ha, that of 617.0–617.5 m was 661 ha and that above 617.5 m was 1,548 ha ^[3].

Where the water came from

The lagoon received rain and a few short, low-flow streams from the surrounding mountains, which vanished in the dry season; Madoz (1847) adds the "waters that rise at its bottom" and Dantín (1942) the "bottom resurgences, witness to its faults" ^[1]. It drained through an outlet of about 7 km, the Antela river, a tributary of the Limia ^[1]. Villarino and others deduce that it was a body of fresh water, little stratified, slightly acid in pH and low in mineral salts; supporting this are the merely occasional presence of flamingo and avocet, brackish-water birds, and the abundance of the crustacean Lepidurus apus ^[1].

The other wetlands of A Limia

Besides Antela, Villarino and others (2002) indicate that in A Limia there were, along the alluvial plains of the Limia and its tributaries, important areas that stayed flooded for much of the year, almost all communal, used as pasture for extensive livestock and bedding, with surrounding farmland in a mosaic with abundant deciduous trees in hedges, groves and oak woods ^[4].

Habitats

According to González and Villarino (2001), in and around the lagoon there were ^[1][2]:

• shallow open waters (2–5 m), permanent or seasonal;
• waters with floating vegetation: water lilies (Nymphaea and Nuphar), pondweed (Potamogeton) and water crowfoot (Ranunculus);
• large stands of emergent macrophytes: sedges (Carex, Cyperus), rushes (Juncus), reeds, the beón or antela (Scirpus), which gave the lagoon its name, Sparganium and bulrush (Typha);
• floodable meadows with herbs or sparse scrub, grazed outside the flood season;
• banks with alder, birch, ash, poplar, willow and elm, and muddy banks and sand bars.

The surroundings were a mosaic agricultural landscape: farmland and pastures with tree-lined hedges (maple, alder, birch, chestnut, hazel, alder buckthorn, ash, holly, poplar, oak, willow and elm) and scattered woods of oak, groves, heath and yew ^[1][2].

Links

• Lagoa de Antela
• The original lagoon
• The draining of the Lagoa de Antela

Sources

1. Sociedade Galega de Historia Natural, «Lagoa de Antela e complexo húmido de A Limia». https://sghn.org/lagoa-de-antela-e-complexo-humido-limia/
2. Sociedade Galega de Historia Natural, Sección Antela, «A Lagoa de Antela e o complexo húmido de A Limia». http://www.sghn.org/Seccion_Antela/Galego/Lagoa_de_Antela.html
3. Sociedade Galega de Historia Natural, Sección Antela, «Cambios estacionais do complexo húmido de A Limia» (versión en castelán). http://www.sghn.org:80/Seccion_Antela/Castelan/Cambios_estacionales.html
4. Sociedade Galega de Historia Natural, Sección Antela, «Los otros humedales de A Limia» (versión en castelán). http://www.sghn.org:80/Seccion_Antela/Castelan/Otros_humedales_limianos.html