ИСТИНА

For several years now Lomonosov Moscow State University in cooperation and with the support of En Plus have been conducting studies at Lake Baikal that look at several of the most important aspects of the Baikal ecosystem. The main directions of research is: - hydrochemical analysis of the surface water in the various places of the lake whole; - a research of the same pollutants, such as plastics and microplastics, which went into Baikal from the shores or with a waste water; - assessment of the state endemic Baikal sponge Lubomirskia baikalensis. In a result, our tests did not find exceeding the maximum allowed concentrations of main toxicants and nutrients at Baikal whole. However, we found that same samples, taken at shallow waters along the shores, have the high concentrations of the copper, zink, iron and nutrients in quantities exceeding the maximum allowed concentrations. We found a lot of the plastics products and plastic parts on the Baikal shores. Microplastics are a marker of a human activity and impact on ecosystems. So far, we have estimated the minimal amount of microplastics about forty thousand particles per square kilometer. This is one and a half time lower, than in Great Lakes of North America, only. But, Great Lakes are a water objects with a very high level of human impact on ecosystem. One think is certain: the intensity of the pollution of Baikal waters by microplastics, is high. The biodegradation of the plastics in environment is a destruction it, by different living organisms. In collaboration with the laboratory of Ecology of Coastal Bottom Communities (Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences) we found on plastic film from Baikal microalgae species, which create the microfractures and cracks on plastic film, helping to destruction it. Almost everywhere we want for a dive, we found the sponges with a necrosis. Necrosis looks like a grayish-brown cloudy spot against the background of bright green healthy tissue. Purple film is the clusters of a cyanobacteria on the dead sponge tissue. At this point, the causes of a this disease is not known. The largest amount of the affected sponges (visually up to ninety percent) was found within Baikal-Lena Natural Reserve. On other hand, next to Shamanka Rock (popular tourist destination with heavy shipping traffic), most sponges were healty.