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The Kotra ((リトアニア語:Katra)) is a river in Belarus and Lithuania. The river is known due to 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 northwestern direction. Just past the Belarus–Lithuania border, between the villages of Paramėliai and Kazliškės, some 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. This situation arose 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 and the Kotra lost two of its tributaries. These processes also caused a decrease in groundwater levels and the almost total disappearance of several large lakes located in the site. The Kotra flows along the Belarus–Lithuania border for and the remaining through Belarus. It then flows along the southern border of Čepkeliai Marsh, an area protected as a nature reserve. With the changes in drainage basins and groundwater levels, some of open marshes overgrew with trees. The Kotra and its surrounding marshes form wetlands of international importance. Varėna district municipality established a reservoir to protect the natural Kotra environment. ==References== * * * "(Cepkeliai )". ''Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network in Lithuania''. Institute of Ecology of Vilnius University. Accessed 9 October 2006. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kotra (river)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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