Dzharylhak National Nature Park ( uk, Джарилгацький національний природний парк) is a national park of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

that covers

Dzharylhach Dzharylhach ( Cyrillic: Джарилгач, also spelled as Dzharylgach) is a sand bank in Skadovsk Raion, Kherson Oblast near Crimea in Ukraine. Along with the Tendra island that lies to the west, in the past it was a spit that Greeks called "C ...

Island and the adjacent Karkinit Bay in the northern reaches of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. Famous for clean sandy beaches and mineral springs in its many small lakes, Dzharylhach is the largest island in the Black Sea. Portions of the park have been protected nature reserves for almost 100 years, as the area is an environmentally sensitive representative of north Black Sea Coast nature habitat. Administratively, the park is in the Skadovsk District of Kherson Oblast.

Topography

Dzharylhach Island is a long, thin line of sand and shoals, running west-to-east in the bay between the

Crimean Peninsula Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

to the south, and the mainland to the north. At times of low water, the shoals can become exposed to join the island as a spit of the mainland. The coastal waters are very shallow, typically less than 1 meter. The characteristic salty soil of the island is called

solonetz Solonetz ( uk, Солонець, rus, Солоне́ц, p=səlɐˈnʲɛts) is a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). They have, within the upper 100 cm of the soil profile, a so-called "natric horizon" ( ...

. The bay is part of the Ramsar Wetland of International Importance.

Climate and ecoregion

The official climate designation for the Dzharylhak area is ''

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

- hot summer sub-type'' (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

Dfa), with large seasonal temperature differentials and a hot summer (at least four months averaging over , at least one of which is over ). The average temperature in January is , and floating ice may appear in the bay for 1–5 days. Average temperature in July is , in the middle of a hot summer season that typical lasts for 5 months. Winds of 6–12 m/s are observed an average of 223 days per year; absolute calm is very rare.

Flora and fauna

The plants on the island are specialized for the environment, and include

psammophyte A psammophyte is a plant that grows in sandy and often unstable soils. Psammophytes are commonly found growing on beaches, deserts, and sand dunes. Because they thrive in these challenging or inhospitable habitats, psammophytes are considered ext ...

s (plants that grow in loose and shifting sand), halophytes (plants adapted to saline habitats), reed-beds in fresh and saline wetlands, the representative flora of coastal meadows and seaside steppe, and

synanthrope A synanthrope (from the Greek σύν ''syn'', "together with" + ἄνθρωπος ''anthropos'', "man") is a member of a species of wild animal or plant that lives near, and benefits from, an association with human beings and the somewhat artific ...

s (wild plants associated with proximity to humans, in this case tree and shrub plantations). Over 500 species of vascular plants, in 72 families are recorded in the terrestrial borders of the park. There are over 80 species of invertebrates in the park. Because the area contains many shallow coastal flats with protective thickets, it is famous for crayfish, crabs, and fish. The bay itself is known for mussels and fish. Wild animals include deer, boar, and

mouflon The mouflon (''Ovis gmelini'') is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, the Caspian region from eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. It is thought to be the ancestor of all modern domestic sheep breeds. Taxonomy ''Ovis gmelini'' was the sc ...

(a type of wild sheep).

Public use

Park management sponsors educational programs for children and school groups, as well as public-awareness activities and ecological tours. The park also sponsors balanced recreational access to beaches, subject to small fees and protection of environmentally sensitive zones. The area is important for waterfowl. The vulnerable red-breasted goose is endemic to the area

References

External links