Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve

Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve
IUCN category Ia (strict nature reserve)
View of Laguna de Apoyo from the crater rim
Location	between Masaya and Granada
Nearest city	Masaya
Area	8,648 acres (43 km2)
Governing body	Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA)

Laguna de Apoyo Nature Reserve (Spanish: Reserva Natural Laguna de Apoyo) is a nature reserve located between the departments of Masaya and Granada in Nicaragua. Lake Apoyo was declared a nature reserve in 1991 and is managed by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) and comprises one of 78 protected areas of Nicaragua. Geological data suggests that Lake Apoyo originated about 23,000 years ago.

The Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve protects a volcanic lake, Laguna de Apoyo, and its drainage basin. Laguna de Apoyo is an endorheic lake occupying the caldera of an extinct volcano. The lake is approximately round, with the diameter of 6.6 km. It is 175 m deep, and occupied 21 square km. The lake's drainage basin occupies 38 km²; influx and outflow of underground water plays a major role in the lake's water balance. According to Nicaraguan hydrologists, the lake's level dropped 10 m in some 30 years between 2002 and the mid-2000s.

The reserve houses a tropical dry forest ecosystem, within the reserve the flora consists of over 500 species of plants and tropical dry trees, such as pochote, black rosewood, mahogany, hogplum and guacuco, as well as a large variety and amount of orchids. The fauna consists of mammals such as variegated squirrels, opossums, anteaters, pacas, jaguarundis, howler and white-faced capuchin monkeys. As well as a variety of reptiles such as green iguanas and common boas. Over 230 species of birds have been documented in the reserve, oropendolas, falcons, hummingbirds, and 65 species of migratory birds are present. Two-hundred twenty species of butterflies have been documented in the reserve, including 25 first records for Nicaragua and dozens of mollusks. Lake Apoyo also contains a variety of fish species, including six endemic species of cichlids in the genus Amphilophus. One of these species is the arrow cichlid (Amphilophus zaliosus), described in 1976. Three additional species were described in 2008, by the multinational research team directed by the Nicaraguan NGO, FUNDECI/GAIA, which manages a research station on the shore of the lake. Two additional species were discovered in 2010. The remaining two cichlids were only described in 2010. In addition to the endemics, three cichlids (Parachromis managuense, Oreochromis aureus, and O. niloticus) are found in the lake, but these were introduced by man.