Kotra (river)
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The Kotra (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) is a Script error: No such module "convert". river in Belarus and Lithuania. The river is an example of a rare phenomenon of river bifurcation.
At first, the Kotra and Ūla form one river, known as the Pelesa, which originates in Belarus and flows in a northwesterly direction. Just past the Belarus–Lithuania border, between the villages of Template:Ill and Kazliškės, some Script error: No such module "convert". southeast of Varėna, it branches out into two independent rivers: the Kotra, a tributary of the Neman, and the Ūla, a tributary of the Merkys. The bifurcation happened in the second half of the 19th century when the Ūla, due to its channel erosion, crossed the water divide between its own and the Kotra's drainage basins. As a result, the Ūla enlarged its basin by some Script error: No such module "convert". and the Kotra lost two of its tributaries. These processes also caused a decrease in groundwater levels and the almost total disappearance of several lakes in the area.
The Kotra flows along the Belarus–Lithuania border for Script error: No such module "convert". and the remaining Script error: No such module "convert". through Belarus. It then flows along the southern border of Čepkeliai Marsh, the area protected as a nature reserve With the changes in drainage basins and groundwater levels, some Script error: No such module "convert". of open marshes overgrew with trees. The Kotra and its surrounding marshes form wetlands of international importance: Kotra Ramsar site[1] and Cepkeliai Ramsar site[2][3] Varėna district municipality established a Script error: No such module "convert". reservoir to protect the natural Kotra environment.
Etymology
The name Katra/Kotra is very unclear. Aleksandras Vanagas reconstructed a very dubious Proto-Indo-European root *kataro- ('a trench, rivulet, stream', as for Italian river Catarona or Liburnian river Καταρβάτης) from which originated the name of the river. Simas Karaliūnas suggested a Slavic borrowing in Lithuanian katãryti/katãlyti (from Template:Langx) 'to beat, to whip' as a possible source of the name. Edward Bogusławski presented Kotra as a Finno-Ugric name (without further elaborating it; Rimvydas Kunskas suggested Template:Langx 'to flood (kaataa) a backgarden (tarha)'). Šarūnas Šimkus suggests the name may come from a pronoun Template:Langx, Template:Langx, Template:Langx 'which [of both]' (fem.) as a reference to a very tangled upper course of this river.[4]
References
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- "Cepkeliai". Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network in Lithuania. Institute of Ecology of Vilnius University. Accessed 9 October 2006.
External links
- Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands (PDF)
- Environmental Changes in the Ūla and Katra Upper Reaches During the Last 14,000 Years (PDF)
- Čepkeliai Marsh and Kotra River
Template:Tributaries of the Neman Template:Authority control