Årungen is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

in the municipality of Ås about south of

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

which is notable for being an environment containing microscopic creatures called collodictyons. Norwegian scientists have been studying the creatures for two decades and speculate that they may be one of the oldest known organisms, and may provide clues about the origins of life. One kilometre south of the lake lies the

Norwegian University of Life Sciences The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (, NMBU) is a public university located in Ås, Akershus, Ås, Norway. It is located in Akershus (county), Akershus county and has around 7,700 students. History The institution was established in 185 ...

. The lake's elevation is and it straddles both Ås and

Frogn Frogn is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Follo, Norway, Follo Districts of Norway, traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the List of cities ...

municipalities of

Akershus Akershus () is a county in Norway, with Oslo as its administrative centre, though Oslo is not located within Akershus. Akershus has been a region in Eastern Norway with Oslo as its main city since the Middle Ages, and is named after the Akers ...

county. The surface area is . Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

Østensjøvannet Østensjøvannet () is a lake located in the Østensjø borough in Oslo, Norway. It is well known for the wide variety of birds and other wildlife that can be found there. It is currently a wildlife preserve, though urban development posed a se ...

(a small lake in the east) and a number of minor streams. It drains into Årungselva river northward to Bunnefjorden. The eastern shore of the lake has been adapted with strolling paths and picnic areas. The water is shallow and rich with nutrients, and inflow from agriculture annually causes blooms of toxic

blue-green algae Cyanobacteria ( ) are a group of autotrophic gram-negative bacteria that can obtain biological energy via oxygenic photosynthesis. The name "cyanobacteria" () refers to their bluish green (cyan) color, which forms the basis of cyanobacteria' ...

. Nevertheless the lake is rich in fish life, with

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

European perch The European perch (''Perca fluviatilis''), also known as the common perch, redfin perch, big-scaled redfin, English perch, Euro perch, Eurasian perch, Eurasian river perch, Hatch, poor man's rockfish or in Anglophone parts of Europe, simply the ...

Common Roach The roach, or rutilus roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), also known as the common roach, is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the family Cyprinidae, native to most of Europe and western Asia. Fish called roach can be any species of the genera ''Rut ...

and

European eel The European eel (''Anguilla anguilla'') is a species of eel. Their life history was a mystery for thousands of years, and mating in the wild has not yet been observed. The five stages of their development were originally thought to be differe ...

. The water quality has improved in recent years. The

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in the southern end is an important part of the local fauna and flora. Årungen is also home to the Norwegian national center for

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

and

paddling Paddling, in regard to waterborne transport, is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using at least one hand-held paddle. The paddle, which consists of one or two blades joined to a shaft, is also used to steer the vessel via generatin ...

. Årungen was host to the 1993

World Rowing Junior Championships The World Rowing U19 Championships, former name World Rowing Junior Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). A rower or coxswain shall be classified as a Junior until 31 Decemb ...

The name

The first part of the name could derive from (meaning ''

alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...

''), which would make the name signify 'the lake where alder grows around it'. The last element ''-ungen'' (Norse ''-ungr'') is a common

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

in names of lakes in Norway, for instance ''Sandungen'' ('the lake with sand') and '' Øyungen'' ('the lake with islands').Store Norske Leksikon
/ref>

References

Ås, Akershus Frogn Rowing venues Lakes of Akershus {{Akershus-lake-stub