Supporting the environmental monitoring program on Lake Baikal — «Point No1»

Supporting the environmental monitoring program on Lake Baikal — «Point No1»

December 5, 2016 – nowadays

It has been five years since Lake Baikal Foundation started to support one of the key projects of Scientific Research Institute of Biology at Irkutsk State University — a long-term ecological monitoring program on lake Baikal entitled «Point No1».

Due to reassignment of state allocations for science in favor of short-term competitive projects, «Point No1» was on the verge of closing due to underfunding.

The project has been put on the Russian Book of Records list as the most long-lasting regular environmental monitoring project in history of science: the project has been conducted without interruptions for over 75 years. The monitoring program was launched by world famous researcher of the lake Professor Mikhail Kozhov in February 1945. The survey implies taking samples of phyto- and zooplankton, measuring the pelagic zone (the water column). All data are recorded in the unique database which represents an array of valuable information for scientific community. Monitoring data is also included into the annual state report «The State of Lake Baikal and Measures for its Protection» issued annually by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation.

Despite the fact that the major part of the lake Baikal environmental monitoring is carried out by authorized state bodies, historically, it was the experts of Scientific Research Institute of Biology at Irkutsk State University who made comprehensive analysis of species composition of phyto- and zooplankton. Over five million records have been accumulated reflecting the weekly condition of the lake Baikal pelagial ecosystem throughout seven decades.

Such kind of research is essential for monitoring the condition of lake Baikal because the quality of its water is defined for 90% by plankton. As plankton’s quantitive and qualitative characteristics are constantly changing, it is necessary to provide permanent monitoring and sampling. Only thanks to such long-lasting research which is being held for decades, it is possible to detect important trends of the Baikal’s ecosystem. Сonsidering invaluable importance of «Point No1» for studying and saving Baikal, the Foundation provided financial assistance to the project.

Goals:

  • to prevent the unique scientific research «Point No1» of Scientific Research Institute of Biology at Irkutsk State University from closing and to provide regular data about the Baikal’s ecosystem;
  • to contribute to the development of the project and to its technical facilities.

Targets:

  • to provide grant assistance to Scientific Research Institute of Biology at Irkutsk State University for implementing «Point No1» project;
  • as a part of assistance to continue annual sample collection in lake Baikal;
  • to implement AI technologies into the environmental monitoring of Baikal.

 What has been done:

  • The grant in 2017 amounted to 2 million rubles, in 2018 —  1.5 million rubles, in 2019 —  1.5 million rubles. Grant funds are spent on salaries for project staff, as well as on its technical support. In 2018, it is expected that the technical support was organized by ISU. Lake Baikal Foundation supports «Point No1» with 1,5 million rubles in 2021, 2 million rubles in 2022.
  • Regular sampling is conducted once in two weeks since February 1945 at «pelagic station No1» (so-called «Point No1»). The station is situated on the southern part Baikal near the settlement Bolshyie Koty at 2,7 km distance from the coast. Every 7-10 days the scientists collect samples of phyto- and zooplankton. Then the sample go to labs where they are put under microscope. After detailed analysis information about more than 700 forms of zooplankton and more than 400 forms of phytoplankton is keyed into a single base.
  • The technological partner has been involved in the project in 2021 and 2022. The project on digitalization of monitoring programme of phyto- and zooplankton in Baikal with implementation of special neural networks has been launched by Yandex.Cloud and Maritime AI. Scientists from the Scientific Research Institute of Biology at Irkutsk State University, engineers of AI Maritime, teams of Yandex.Cloud and Lake Baikal Foundation participated in the creation stage.
    Based more than 1000 shots of each kind of plankton, Maritime AI will develop classification mechanism of plankton, using Yandex DataSphere – Yandex.Cloud service for data analysis, engineering and running models of machine learning. The algorithm will identify up to 99% of all kinds of plankton, whereas scientists from the Scientific Research Institute of Biology will control the quality of its work. First prototype, which will be able to identify several kinds of plankton, is planned to be demonstrated already in 2022.
    The classification algorithm will help to develop monitoring programme «Point No1» in several directions: pass over valuable knowledge and expertise of the specialists, turn the system into universal assistant, which effectively classifies kinds of plankton, speed up work of the biologists. Also, it will allow to scale up the programme, opening monitoring spots in other places in the future. 

Results:

  • By the results of 75-years research the scientists spotted the following trends:

1) decreasing number of microcellular endemic Baikal subglacial algae and endemic subglacial Baikal rotifers;
2) increasing number of cosmopolite small-celled algae and cosmopolite summer rotifers;
3) biodiversity of subglacial algae depends on temperature of water under ice – the lower the temperature, the more endemic species of algae develop there, and vice versa: the higher the temperature, the more cosmopolites are there.

  • Following the results of the project in 2016, the data were included for the first time in the State of the Climate report, published by the American Meteorological Society.
  • Following the results of the project in 2017, the data were included in the State of the Climate report 2017 for the second year in a row.
  • Following the results of the project in 2019, the data were included in the State of the Climate 2019  for the third year in a row.

The results of monitoring are important for understanding the processes of lake Baikal ecosystem and its reaction to global climate change.

What will be done:

  • Monitoring of plankton will be continued to confirm the emerging trends. Data and samples collected in the year 2018 will be processed in the second half of the year 2019.

Scientific Reports

Scientific report on the long-term ecological monitoring program of Lake Baikal «Point No.1» for 2020

Scientific report on the long-term ecological monitoring program of Lake Baikal «Point No.1» for 2019

Scientific report on the long-term ecological monitoring program of Lake Baikal «Point No.1» for 2018

Scientific report on the long-term ecological monitoring program of Lake Baikal «Point No.1» for 2017



Water Conservation