Aksuat ( kk, Ақсуат; russian: Аксуат) is a

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...

lake in the

Kostanay Region Kostanay Region ( kk, Қостанай облысы, translit=Qostanai oblysy; russian: Костанайская область, translit=Kostanayskaya oblast) is a region of Kazakhstan. Its administrative center is the city of Kostanay. The pop ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. Aksuat is a steppe lake of the central sector of the

Turgay Basin Turgay is a Turkish given name for males. People named Turgay include: * Turgay Avcı, Turkish Cypriot politician * Turgay Bahadır, Turkish-Austrian footballer * Turgay Gemicibasi, Turkish footballer * Turgay Semercioğlu, Turkish footballer * Tu ...

in Nauyrzym District, Kostanay Region. Now uninhabited Naurzum village is located near the lake and the

Naurzum Nature Reserve Naurzum State Nature Reserve ( kk, Наурызым мемлекеттік табиғи қорығы, ) is a nature reserve in Kostanay Region, Kazakhstan. It is part of the UNESCO heritage site Saryarka — Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan ...

protected area is named after it.Naurzum State Nature Reserve - BirdLife Data Zone
/ref>

Karamendy Karamendy ( kk, Қарамеңді; russian: Караменды), until 1999 known as ''Dokuchayevka'', is a village in Naurzum District, Kostanay Region, Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of the Naurzum District, as well as of the Karam ...

, the administrative center of the district, is located about to the northwest and Shili village to the northeast of the northern end of the lake.Aksuat Lake - BirdLife Data Zone
/ref>

Geography

Aksuat is an

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

lake lying in the Ishim river valley, between

Zharman Zharman ( kk, Жарман) is a salt lake in Naurzum District, Kostanay Region, Kazakhstan. Zharman is part of the main lake group of the Naurzum Nature Reserve, a protected area established in 2009. The village of Karamendy, former Dokuchaye ...

lake to the north and Sarykopa farther to the south. It is a shallow and elongated lake system, stretching roughly from SSW to NNE and consisting of two main lakes, the Small Aksuat and the Big Aksuat which are connected by a long channel. The Karasu river flows into the lake from the southwest. In years of heavy snowfall the lake may reach a surface area of in the spring, but during the dry season in the summer the lake usually splits into a number of smaller, very shallow lakes. In years of drought Aksuat may dry completely up. The lake freezes in November and its ice begins to melt in April. The banks are indented and the bottom of the lake is muddy. The water has a high concentration of minerals.Аксуат
''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (in Russian) Google Earth

Fauna

Aksuat is part of the Naurzum Nature Reserve. It can support large concentrations of waterbirds such as the

white-tailed lapwing The white-tailed lapwing or white-tailed plover (''Vanellus leucurus'') is a wader in the lapwing genus. The genus name ''Vanellus'' is Medieval Latin for a lapwing and derives from ''vannus'' a winnowing fan. The specific ''leucurus'' is from An ...

common goldeneye The common goldeneye or simply goldeneye (''Bucephala clangula'') is a medium-sized sea duck of the genus ''Bucephala'', the goldeneyes. Its closest relative is the similar Barrow's goldeneye. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek ...

and

squacco heron The squacco heron (''Ardeola ralloides'') is a small heron, long, of which the body is , with wingspan. It is of Old World origins, breeding in southern Europe and the Greater Middle East. Behaviour The squacco heron is a migrant, wintering ...

. There have been sightings of the critically endangered

siberian crane The Siberian crane (''Leucogeranus leucogeranus''), also known as the Siberian white crane or the snow crane, is a bird of the family Gruidae, the cranes. They are distinctive among the cranes: adults are nearly all snowy white, except for their ...

, but few.Sites with great importance for the Siberian Crane
/ref> Among the fish species found in the lake,

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...

, common roach and carp deserve mention.

References

External links

Saryarka – Steppe Lakes of Northern KazakhstanBirds of Kazakhstan: new and interesting data, part 2
Lakes of Kazakhstan Kostanay Region Endorheic lakes of Asia {{Kazakhstan-geo-stub

Geography

Fauna

See also

References

External links