Current view: Text account
Site description (2002 baseline):
Site location and context
Coastal lagoon communicated with Atlantic Ocean by a canal and rounded by well-developed riparian vegetation and mud flats. The area is fed by two rivers: the ditch Silvalde, whose mouth is at the north-bank of the lagoon, and the ditch Maceda, that dischargues at the south-bank. The two ditches form the central part of the lagoon, that is bounded by a litoral dune string. At Barrinha de Esmoriz's surrounding area, there are pine-woods (at South), humid/ripariam forests (at East and South), sand-dunes and beaches (at West), agricultural landscapes (at North, East and South), a plateau with crawling and shrubby vegetation (at North) and buildings (at North, East and South).
Barrinha de Esmoriz/Lagoa de Paramos is the main humid zone at portuguese north litoral, between Ria de Aveiro and River Minho Estuary. Besides species in the table, is to relate the breeding of
Charadrius alexandrinus, and the reedbed passerines:
Acrocephalus arundinaceus and
A. scipaceus. Barrinha is also very important to passerines in autumn passage.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
In spite of Barrinha de Esmoriz beeing integrated at the second phase of Rede Natura 2000, there is not any official conservation plan. Comunication of lagoon with ocean depends on sea action and/or human intervention, so now, lagoon is not influenced by tides, that is why important water level fluctuations occur, harming birds breeding. Construction of sewage farm at Esmoriz have improved water quality at Maceda ditch (Southern); Silvalde dintch (Northern) continues very polluted turning very bad indeed water quality at Barrinha de Esmoriz.
National:SIC proposal Barrinha de Esmoriz,396 ha overlaps with IBA
International:SIC proposal Barrinha de Esmoriz
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Barrinha de Esmoriz/Lagoa de Paramos (Portugal). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/barrinha-de-esmoriz-lagoa-de-paramos-iba-portugal on 23/12/2024.
