Bräckt

Bräckt is a Swedish adjective used primarily in hydrology and ecology to describe water with salinity between freshwater and seawater (the English term brackish). The phenomenon occurs in estuaries, coastal lagoons, and inland waterways where seawater mixes with freshwater.

The salinity in bräckt environments can fluctuate with tides, rainfall, and human activities, and these areas often support communities of organisms adapted to variable salinity. Bräckt habitats tend to have distinctive physical and chemical characteristics, such as variable conductivity and nutrient regimes, and often high productivity. They are ecologically important for juvenile marine species and resident wildlife, but can be sensitive to pollution, water withdrawals, and habitat modification.

Outside technical usage, bräckt may appear in non-scientific Swedish texts as a descriptive term for something that has become brackish; it can also appear as a past participle with other verbs, though such usage is uncommon. The word may also appear as a surname or place name in some contexts, though these uses are not part of the primary hydrological sense.

Related concepts include brackish water, estuary, and salinity.