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STAGES OF ANTHROPOGENIC PRESSURE ON THE LAKE

Russia (and especially Siberia) is fortunate, comparing with other developed countries, as its industry and agriculture started to influence environment much later than the rest of the world. The following are the various stages of anthropogenic effects on lake Baikal:[34–37]

1.Preindustrial stage. Till the second half of the nineteenth century. Native peoples of Eastern Siberia minimally influenced Baikal since the appearance of Russians in 1643. Even after this the influence was in the form of fishing, forest fires, forest cutting for fuel, building of houses, clearing of lands, and ploughing of land.

2.Early industrial stage. The end of the nineteenth to middle of the twentieth century. Building of railroads, industrial enterprises, ports at the lake, and development of navigation. Agriculture and industrial development, population grows.

3.Industrial development becomes faster. The middle of the twentieth century. Fishing advanced during the World War II, dam of Irkutsk Hydro-Power Station and Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Combine (BPPC) are built.

4.Economic life of the region becomes more intense. 1970 to 1990. Intense use of mineral fertilizers, pesticides (prohibited in the mid-1980), pollution of Selenga river, active use of lake for transport (including logs rafting), development of mining industry, creation of Baikal-Amur Railroad, growth of population, and beginning of mass tourism.

5.Newest stage. The level of pollution decreased in 1990s owing to a fall in economic activity, control of environment quality weakened. Wild tourism exploded, simultaneously with mass construction activity along the shores of the lake, dramatic increase of navigation activity. Strengthening of law protection of the lake, inclusion of the lake Baikal into list of UNESCO Heritage in 1996.

PHYSICAL IMPACT ON THE LAKE

The dam of Irkutsk Hydro-Power Electric Station was built on river Angara, 65 km from its outflow from lake Baikal in 1956–1959. Water level in the lake increased by almost 1 m, amplitude of its oscillations increased (455.61 + 0.15 m before 1959, 456.41 + 0.25 m after, Fig. 1), 600 km2 of shoreline zone were flooded, 1200 km2 are flooded from time to time, and every year 500,000 t of erosive material are washed to the lake.

Frequent sharp fluctuations in the water level could cause changes in the state of sors [shallow bays, very important

Lake Baikal: Current Environmental Problems

Fig. 1 Fluctuations of water level in the lake Baikal (m above sea level) in 1900–2010. Gray line—average long-term before building the dam of hydropower station and after it, dots—average deviations of the level from the long-term one.

Source: According to Silow.[38]

for omul (the main industrially important fish of the lake), as habitats of its juvenile stages]. Many spawning places of yellow-fin sculpins died when the water level increased in 1950, as the caviar of this sculpin can develop at precise depth only. It was a serious strike for the population of omul, as larvae of yellow-fin sculpin are the important part of its ratio.

The building of cascade of giant reservoirs at river Angara during the 1950s to the 1970s influenced climatic regime of the region too. The temperature of air in the surroundings of lake Baikal has increased by 1.28C, with the greatest increase observed during the last four decades. The temperature of the upper layer of water has increased by 1.88C since the 1970s causing the formation of ice cover

to be delayed by 10 days, ice-break earlier by 15 days, and the average ice thickness is now smaller by 9 cm.[39–41] The wind situation has also changed.[42]

BIOLOGICAL POLLUTION OF THE LAKE

Biological pollution or invasion by alien bacterial species is another additional cause of pollution of the lake. One also hears of the discovery of pathogenic viruses in lake Baikal. They enter the lake via air mass transport, with washes from the shores, waters of tributaries, and with excretions of human beings. There are nontypical bacteria (Escherichia coli, pathogenic vibrions, and others) increasingly found in Baikal. They enter the lake along with fecal waters, domestic, and tributary waters.

It is possible to note the development of plankton algae species with lowered sensitivity to chemical pollution. Nitzschia acicularis—cosmopolite diatom algae, typical for mesotrophic and eutrophic water bodies is an example. It was observed very rarely in the phytoplankton of the lake in the 1950s. This algae develops in mass during underice season starting from the end of the 1960s. When the cycling of mass development of Aulacoseirs baicalensis

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Lake Baikal: Current Environmental Problems

deviates from usual regime, Nitzschia starts to partly replace Aulacoseira in baikalian phytoplankton.[43] Nevertheless, Nitzschia practically disappeared from samples in the year 2000, with simultaneous recovery of Aulacoseira.[13] We do not and possibly will never know whether is it some cyclic dynamics or whether this was a deviation caused by pollution or climate change. It is possible to mention the mass development (up to 9 million cells L−1) of algae

Achnanthes minutissima, which is a bio-indicator of heavy metals pollution.[18] It was the only mass development of

this alga in lake Baikal.

Elodea kanadensis, famous for its distribution along Eurasia since the end of the nineteenth century, appears in Baikal during the end of the 1970s (at Selenga shallow firstly), with mass development along the shores of the lake. Fast growth and active vegetative reproduction of elodea helped her rapid progress along the shoreline of the lake. It occupied practically all shallow zone from South to North of the lake with phytomass reaching 300 g m−2 in the 1980s. There was a danger of replacement of Baikal macrophytes by elodea and danger of die off under ice development due to such masses of plants decomposition. Fortunately for Baikal, the water of the lakes was too pure for this plant. It needs more mineral content (particularly— more calcium). This fact led to the current distribution of elodea formation. It can now be found near settlements, in bays, and river inlets, where it functions as biological filter, eliminating pollutants coming along with the water from tributaries or from the shoreline.

Percottus glehni was discovered in the region of Selenga river in the beginning of the 1970s. It is a predatory sculpin, entered waters of Selenga, like elodea, due to aquariumists. It became the dominant species of fish population in Selenga shallow, but did not spread wider.

It is possible to note the invasion of fishes, introduced to other water bodies of region artificially to increase fish productivity. Among them is a carp (introduced to Ivano-Arachley, Gusino-Ubukin, Eravno-Kharginsk lakes since 1938), a vendace (cultivated in Gusino-Ubukin, Eravno-Kharginsk lakes since 1954), a bream (introduced to Gusinoe lake in 1954), and peled (cultivated in Schuchie lake from 1968). It is necessary to note that the appearance of these species of fishes fortunately did not affect endemic baikalian fauna. We must remember that omul and seal are also invasive species in the lake.

SOURCES OF CHEMICAL POLLUTION

Chemical pollutants enter lake Baikal due to navigation, tourism, washes from coastline, waste waters of settlements, and industrial enterprises, situated along the coasts

of Baikal, water of tributaries and discharges from atmosphere.[26–33]

The most evident source of pollution is navigation. If 100 years ago there were only 15 steam engine ships at

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lake Baikal, recently the number of ships is more than 300, and number of motor boats is about 8000.[35,37] All

of them are a source of pollution of lake Baikal with oil products, while ships additionally pollute the lake with fecal waters.

A sufficient source of pollution of the lake with phenolic compounds was log-rafting, but it was prohibited in 1980. Now navigation pollutes the lake with more than 250 t of

oil products, 30 t of fecal organics, 8 t of mineral forms of nitrogen, 3 t of phosphorus, and 2500 t of trash.[35,37]

Tourism, especially the so-called wild tourism is an important source of pollution of the lake. Annually, Baikal is visited by 1.5–2 million tourists (legal only), their activity produces 780,000 t of trash, 6000 t (dry weight) of fecal organic matter, 1500 t of mineral forms of nitrogen, and 300 t of phosphorus, washed to the lake.[35–37]

Settlements and industrial enterprises, situated along the coasts of Baikal export to the lake more than 60 million t of waste waters per year. For example, the towns Severobaikalsk and Slyudyanka produce 1.6 + 0.3 million t each, and the settlement of Listvyanka—from 1 to 6 million t per year, until 2008, when waste water treatment plant started in Listvyanka.[36]

Attention of community, environmentalists, and mass media is devoted to BPPC. It looks like if it was erected to attract attention of concerned people and to make them pay no attention to other, more serious problems of Baikal pollution, but it is preserved specially for this purpose. First, it is called “Baikalsk,” second, it is situated directly at the shore of the lake, and finally, smoke from its pipes is clearly visible from great distance. All of these provoke active environmentalists like a red flag for a bull.

Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Combine produced 34 to 69 million t of purified waste waters per year, 46.5 million t as average (29–44 million t per year for 2005–2008) during 42 years. In September 2008 it was shifted to waste waters recirculation way of paper production, but as this was not effective it was stopped, and renewed work in 2010. Currently it has stopped functioning. The outcomes of some pollutants are listed in Table 1. As we shall see later, these pollutions are not the most serious ones Baikal is faced with.

It is necessary to stop any industrial activity at the coasts of the lake, the same also with navigation. Tourist activity should also be minimized and we can solve the problem of chemical pollution. Unfortunately, it is not so easy. The waters coming into Baikal originate not only from the coasts of the lake but also include domestic, agricultural, and industrial wastes from its watershed, covering more than 560,000 km2.

This area is inhabited by more than 1,300,000 people, holding 1,860,000 caws, 1,348,000 horses, 1,164,000 ships, and 232,000 goats, not taking into account pigs and birds. All of them produce around 500,000 t of dry fecal organic matter, mineral forms of nitrogen—125,000 t, and phosphorus—25,000 t. There are about 9000 km2 of

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Table 1 Income of some pollutants to lake Baikal with purified waste waters of BPPC (t year 1)

Source: After Silow,[34] Silow & Orlov,[35] Silow & Khodzher,[36] and Silow & Orlov.[37]

ploughed lands in the watershed, and they serve as a source of 118,000 t of nitrogen, 39,000 t of phosphorus, and 79,000 t of potassium removal per year.[34–36]

There are large industrial centers situated in the basin of the lake: cities of Ulan-Baator, Ulan-Ude, Gusinoozersk, many mining complexes of Mongolia and Buryatia. Table 2 provides the characteristic of purified waste waters of Ulan-Ude.

The surface income of pollutants to lake with waters of tributaries must be rather sufficient part of total income. The largest source of pollution is the river Selenga bringing more than half of surface income of water and occupying the largest basin (Table 3).

Nevertheless, the complete prohibition of any industrial activity in the watershed basin of lake Baikal will not

Table 2 Characteristics of purified waste waters of Ulan-Ude city

Lake Baikal: Current Environmental Problems

bring about an end to pollution. The matter in lake Baikal acts as giant dust-sucker collecting dust, suspended material, aerosol particles from the air above larger territory than its watershed basin. During the most part of the year, the temperature of water body is higher than the temperature of surrounding territories. The air above the lake becomes warmer and shifts upward. Its place is occupied by the air from surrounding territories. This air in its turn fulfills moving upward, while the particles, transported by it, cannot fulfill this movement and drop down to the surface of water and ice. That is why there are 45–50 kg km−2 of iron, 25–30 kg km−2 of aluminum, 1–1.5 kg km−2 of lead, up to 100 g km−2 of mercury, up to 50 g km−2 of uran, and

other compounds precipitated to the surface of lake.[34,35,37] It is quite comparable with the amounts of

the same metals precipitating to the surface of lake Michigan, situated in industrial region. There are natural components, industrial wastes, combustion products, wind erosion substances, mining by-products among the substances, transported by atmospheric currents.

Now we can look at the total picture of pollutants coming to Baikal (Fig. 2). It can be clearly seen that the a great part (83%) of the contaminants comes with waters of tributaries,

Table 3 Concentrations of allochthonous compounds in river Selenga at mouth and income

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