LAKE BAIKAL

 

The Baikal, being the unique phenomenon on the Earth, inimitable in its beauty, flora and fauna, peculiar water features and ancient origin attracts attention of many scientists, students and nature-lovers. It is known as a natural laboratory for formation of different species of water organisms and the largest fresh-water reservoir on the Earth.

The Baikal is situated nearly in the central part of Asia, approximately between the latitudes of such cities as Moscow and Voronezh. The lake is 635 km long, its largest width is 79,5 km (between the Ust-Barguzin Settlement and the Bolshoy Onguren Village) and the least width is 25 km (against the Selenga River delta). The shoreline length of the Baikal is 2000 km.

The area of the lake amounts to 31500 sq.km, which is approximately equal to the areas of such countries as Belgium and Holland taken together. There are 22 small islands on it, the Olkhon Island, being the biggest among them, exceeds 700 sq.km. Over 300 rivers and streams flow into the lake and the only Angara flows out of it.

The Baikal is the oldest existing freshwater lake on the Earth (20-25 million years old), as well as the deepest continental body of water. Its maximum depth is 1637 meters. The lake contains about 20 % of all free fresh water in the world, almost as much as the basins of all five Great Lakes of North America and more than the Baltic Sea.

Quite a few lakes-analogues, such as the Caspian Sea and Tanganyika are similar to it only in some peculiarities of biotas but there is no lake in the world to compete with Lake Baikal in a wide range of organism species. The lake can be considered a museum of freshwater fauna. It is populated by 2500 species of animal and plant life, three-quarters of which are endemic, that is, they are not met anywhere else in the world.

There is no single opinion concerning the origin of the unusually specific endemic fauna. Some scientists are inclined to believe that it comes from ancient reservoirs. Still others claim that the majority of the present Baikal species were formed in the Baikal proper for a long period of its existence. In fact, new and original forms of life emerge and continue to develop right before man’s eyes. As early as the beginning of the last century scientists suggested that the Baikal conceals the secrets of the origin of the entire continent’s freshwater flora and fauna.

The Baikal flora and fauna are not homogeneous by their nature as they involve paleoarctic and endemic species. The former are widely spread both in reservoirs around the Baikal and in all fresh-water reservoirs of the Northern hemisphere; endemic species, which constitute 35% of vegetative organisms and about 60% of animals, occur only in the Baikal. The paleoarctic species are developed in closed bays, in tributaries of the Baikal and rarely in open parts of it; the endemic species mainly occur in the open Baikal and only a few of them get to the bays.

In organisms populating the water stratum of the Baikal, diatomic algae, peridinians and ultranannoplankton species of the blue-green group are of particular significance. We may single out infusoria, copepods – epishur and cyclope and big pelagic amphipods as the most important species in the animal life.

Unique to the lake is a practically invisible crustacean called the Baikal epishura, which passes the lake water through its system, efficiently cleaning it of plankton, algae and bacteria. Epishura and other representatives of zooplankton act as a powerful biological filter. During a year it filtrates from 500 to 1000 cub.km of water that is 10-15 times as high as the annual amount of water brought by all the inflows.

One of the wonders of the Baikal is the golomyanka fish, of the family Comephoridae. Its 15-20 cm long semi-transparent body is scaleless. About 30% of fat constitutes the body of a grown-up golomyanka female. It is viviparous, spawns 2-3 thousand of larvae into the water stratum and after that it generally dies. The most striking thing about this fish is that it moves quickly and easily in a vertical direction, descending to a depth of 1500 meters, where even a gun would not be able to fire because of the tremendous pressure.

In all, there are fifty species of fish present in the Baikal, which belong to ten families. Nearly half of species are represented by the endemic bullhead fish from the family of bullheads and golomyanka. Such fish as omul, sig, grayling are from the salmon family. The representatives of other families are burbot, perch, etc. Among the rest, we should mention the Amur sazan, bream, the Amur sheet-fish which belong to the carp family.

Mammals in the Baikal are represented by seal, or nerpa, as the locals call it. From morphological and biological evidence it is very similar to the ringed seal inhabiting the seas of the North Pole and Far East, as well as to the Caspian seal. For feeding seals utilize golomyanka and bullheads. These animals are distributed all over the lake especially in the Northern and Middle Baikal.

Vegetation near the shores of Lake Baikal includes larch and rhododendron; poplar forests in the lowlands; taiga of cedar, spruce, fir, and larch on the mountain slopes; and the thickets of dwarf Siberian pine and birch in the higher meadows. The upper elevations are dominated by tundra and lichen-covered rocks and cliffs. Among the wildlife are brown bear, wild pig, fox, musk and roe deer, red deer, reindeer, elk, moose, stoat, lynx, weasel, wolverine, otter, badger, pika, Siberian chipmunk; and birds such as the swan goose, white-tailed eagle, ptarmigan, rock ptarmigan, grouse, oriental cuckoo, warbler, tit, crested honey buzzard, and the great bustard.

An extensive activity of man on the shores and its basins has already disturbed the historically established balance in the Baikal ecosystem. Urgent measures should be taken to protect this unique natural complex. To begin with, it is necessary to eliminate all the main sources of water pollution: industrial waste water from the plants situated in the Selenga River basin, especially those in the Ulan-Ude region, and from the Selenga pulp-and- board mill; oil products brought both with inflows and from ships and oil-filling stations; atmospheric dust and gaseous discharge from plants and transport; pollutants from agricultural fields.

The preservation of Baikal is a question of conscience. It is desirable that this natural complex become a recreation zone with unique properties, a large international center and a scientific proving ground of international significance.

 

 

 

 

According to a legend, when God was creating the severe land of Siberia, he dropped one of his best jewels there – a pearl of rare beauty. But seeing how it sparkled with a new luster amidst the boundless sea of the green taiga, he did not pick it up…To this day Baikal is called the “blue pearl of Siberia’.