Environmental monitoring of Lake Baikal

Characteristics of aquatic organisms (hydrobionts)

Below are five graphs with observations of 5 groups of hydrobionts in lake Baikal in 2020, and in 2015-2019 for comparison. The x-axis shows the months of 2015-2020, and the y-axis shows the average value of the population or the total mass index for the time of observation. Each chart has the dash-lines consisting of horizontal lengths of the survey time (1-3 months)

Heterotrophs (Bacterial plankton)

Phytoplankton

Zooplankton

Bacterial benthos

Zoobenthos

Hydrobiological observations in 2020 in the area of the Baikalsk WWTP showed that data on the abundance of determined groups of bacteria in surface waters and soils are comparable to long-term data. The area of contamination according to the state of bacterioplankton in 2020 varied from 0.9 km2 during the period of ice survey to 8.4 km2 in June, in August it was 5.9 km2. The area of pollution according to the state of the microflora of bottom sediments varied from 1.7 km2 during the ice survey to 5.4 km2 in August.

In the area of Northern Baikal, the average indicators of heterotrophs, compared with the data of 2019, increased: in summer - by 2.9 times, in autumn - by 2.1. During the season, a decrease in the average values of heterotrophs from June to September by 2.4 times (from 1149 to 484 cells/ml) was observed.

In the area of the Selenginsky shallow water in 2020, the number of heterotrophic bacteria in the surface water layer (0.5 m) varied in the range from 193 to 1377 cells/ml. The average number (643 cells/ml) is 1.6 times higher than last year's value.