- •Introduction
- •Problem of Pure Fresh Water
- •Problem of the Global Climate Change
- •Stages of Anthropogenic Pressure on the Lake
- •Physical Impact on the Lake
- •Biological Pollution of the Lake
- •Sources of Chemical Pollution
- •Pollutants Coming to the Lake
- •Self-Purification Processes
- •Conclusion
- •References
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6
Table 4 Concentrations of some compounds in lake Baikal water
Compound |
Concentration |
|
|
Pb (µg L 1) |
0.1–10.75 |
Cd (µg L 1) |
0.01–58.50 |
Hg (µg L 1) |
0.08–0.38 |
Sb (µg L 1) |
0.11–0.31 |
U (µg L 1) |
0.37–1.33 |
DDT (µg L 1) |
0.006–0.017 |
Oil products (mg L 1); |
|
Northern Baikal |
0.03–1.00 |
Southern Baikal |
0.03–0.66 |
Outflow of Angara |
0.00–0.11 |
Source: After Grachev,[25] Silow & Orlov,[35] and Silow & Khodzher.[36]
are able to suppress phytoplankton under ice,[44] the rest of these substances are toxic for lake Baikal ecosystem components. Additionally, heavy metals and surfactants can be accumulated in trophic chains, concentrating in final
Lake Baikal: Current Environmental Problems
consumers organisms (large fishes, aquatic birds, seal, human beings).[21–23]
Now, we observe the fluctuations of different compounds concentrations in water (Table 4). These fluctuations are the result of the income of allochthonous compounds as well as of self-purification processes in the background of other factors acting, as natural oil springs, natural oscillations of hydrochemical regime, geological, and hydrological processes. Here, we can swear for anthropogenic origin for DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) only.
SELF-PURIFICATION PROCESSES
It is very important to take into account the processes of self-purification of lake Baikal. Every organic molecule is a precious food for baikalian bacteria, which decompose any natural organic substance (including benz(a)pyrene and dioxins of natural origin) and cannot decompose artifi- cial substances such as pesticides (e.g., DDT) and some surfactants. The decomposition of organic substances in Baikal
Table 5 Income of contaminants to the lake Baikal (103 t year 1) during 1999–2010
|
|
|
|
Source |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wastes and |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
washes from |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
settlements at |
|
Atmospheric |
Contaminant |
|
BPPC |
Navigation |
Tourism |
shores |
Tributaries |
precipitations |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mineralization |
40.7+1 |
0.011+0.002 |
2+0.3 |
5.26+0.63 |
4304+763 |
413+47 |
|
Without |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sulfates |
26+0.1 |
|
|
1.23+0.15 |
380+67 |
63.6+19 |
|
Mineral nitrogen |
|
|
0.008+0.001 |
1.5+0.3 |
0.384+0.0461 |
3.3+1.1 |
17.9+3.8 |
Mineral |
|
|
0.003+0.0005 |
0.3+0.08 |
0.106+0.013 |
0.46+0.17 |
0.7+0.1 |
phosphorus |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Heavy metals |
|
|
|
|
0.017+0.002 |
0.43+0.36 |
0.037+0.005 |
Dissolved organic |
5.6+0.1 |
0.28+0.011 |
6+0.9 |
5+0.6 |
1260+480 |
271+86 |
|
matter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Without |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Easily oxidated |
0.5+0.02 |
0.03+0.001 |
6+0.9 |
3.54+0.42 |
54+7.1 |
|
|
matter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Volatile phenolic |
0.002+0.001 |
|
|
0.003+0.001 |
0.07+0.07 |
0.015+0.001 |
|
compounds |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sulfur-containing |
0.012+0.001 |
|
|
|
0.12+0.06 |
|
|
compounds |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oil products |
0.002+0.0001 |
0.25+0.01 |
0.06+0.01 |
0.16+0.02 |
0.93+0.38 |
0.198+0.049 |
|
Hardly oxidated |
5+0.4 |
|
|
|
387+102 |
|
|
matter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Surfactants |
|
|
|
0.01+0.001 |
0.04+0.01 |
0.37+0.15 |
|
Particulate matter |
0.673+32 |
2.5+0.1 |
780+112 |
10.1+1.2 |
818+370 |
550+234 |
|
% of total |
0.91 |
0.04 |
0.20 |
0.30 |
83.34 |
15.22 |
Source: From State report.[26–33]
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Lake Baikal: Current Environmental Problems
is supported by the high content of oxygen in baikalian water, which is beneficial both for chemical as well as biological oxidation of pollutants. Synthetic organic substances and heavy metals are adsorbed by particulate matter, by surface of bacteria, protozoa, and algae, by feeding mechanisms of filtering organisms of benthos (sponges) and, especially, zooplankton. Part of the substances, adsorbed by plankton organisms, is included in trophic chain after eating their carriers by other organisms of plankton and nekton. In the end they are sedimented to the bottom with animal bodies and fecal pellets. At the bottom they are partly buried in bottom sediments, and partly continue movement along the trophic chains of coprophages, necrophages, and detritus-consumers. All these substances end
their movement in terrestrial ecosystems, or, mostly, in bottom sediments.[35,37,44]
It is necessary to emphasize—although there is some contamination (Table 5) of lake Baikal, nevertheless, that the water of lake Baikal remains the purest among the natural lake waters and is drinkable even in the regions of local pollution.
7
CONCLUSION
We have analyzed the consequences of anthropogenic influence on the lake ecosystem with mathematical model, taking into account input of nutrients, toxic, and non-toxic compounds at the level of end of 1980s to the beginning of 1990s, when industry and agriculture were more powerful than they are now. According to predictions of this model[44–51] we can wait for decrease of biomass of underice phytoplankton and increase of summer phytoplankton, some decrease of under-ice and increase of summer zoo-
plankton. These predictions were supported by observations between 1990 and 2000.[5–7,11]
It is necessary to note that global climate change caused a decrease of share of large-cells phytoplankton, increase of share of small-cells phytoplankton, and mass development
of some groups of phytoplankton (cladocerans[51]). All of these processes are described for Baikal.[8–10,12–14]
We must emphasize the predicted consequences of chemical pollution of the lake and possible shifts caused by climate change are practically the same. In both cases
Fig. 4 Lake Baikal in early spring (A), midsummer (B), late autumn (C), and middle of winter (D).
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8
we await the growth of small-cells phytoplankton share, strengthening of summer phytoplankton, cladocerans, and cyclops development. The picture observed coincide with this. Therefore, today we cannot select one of the explanations of observed picture—is this consequence of local and regional anthropogenic impact in the form of pollution the result of global climate change, or the effect of natural oscillating processes? We can say that lake Baikal obviously is withstanding quite successfully to current anthropogenic impact due to its high self-purification potential, based on its morphometry (volume, depth, relation of water surface area to depth), hydrophysical and hydrochemical features (saturation of water with oxygen to maximal depths, low starting concentrations of chemical components), and functioning of its ecosystem (Fig. 4).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Authors are grateful to program of strategic development of Irkutsk state university for 2012–2016, supported this research with grant #R212-IB-001.
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