It is impossible to say that Baikal has been fully explored today. Even some simple moments are often confusing. For example, such a seemingly elementary question as the number of sources flowing into the lake can be considered open. After all, it is not so easy to record all the streams that carry the purest mountain water to Baikal. It's almost like conducting a population census. Even the number of rivers varies from source to source! It is difficult to count all these flows, because some shores of the lake are simply impassable. Sheer cliffs or, conversely, swampy places get in the way, and it’s not always possible to see a stream meandering in the grass from a helicopter. The situation is also complicated by the seasonal difference in these tributaries, because some of them appear during the snowmelt period, happily disappearing in the summer.
But it has been precisely established that the Angara water is carried away from Lake Baikal. But whether there are small, insignificant drains near the lake is also difficult to say. Regarding the number of islands, there is the same confusion - for some reason it is impossible to count them accurately. Or they get washed away running water lakes? By the way, information about water exchange also varies. Some scientists claim that the water in the bottom layers of Lake Baikal settles for almost centuries, and therefore acquires unique properties. Others focus on the fact that the lake’s water is still in motion, and this does not allow it to accumulate large number silt - and with it acquire turbidity, and that is why the transparency of Baikal water is so high.
"Culprit" of cleanliness
But what has also been established for sure is one of the “culprits” of the unsurpassed purity of this greatest thing on the planet water reserve. This is a microscopic crustacean that processes everything that could form sludge. They call it Baikal epishura. And this endemic planktonic crustacean processes all substances down to the simplest inorganic compounds. Local plankton in huge quantities produces oxygen! Another filter for Baikal water is sponges. This is where the water is so amazingly rich in this life-giving element. So, water sediment, especially centuries-old water, apparently has nothing to do with it at all.
Baikal simply heals itself with the help of microorganisms that are found almost nowhere else. Why "almost"? Because Baikal water still penetrates into other lakes in its basin, and together with this plankton. But here’s a mystery: the warm and shallow Lake Kotokel, where it is reliably known that the same epishura plankton is present, almost died from an environmental disaster. Of course, the percentage of pollution in a small lake could exceed all conceivable limits, but the temperature of the water could also play a role, in which pathogenic organisms could multiply more actively than in the cold, deep Baikal, and therefore the bottom plankton was unable to cope with such an attack.
But what’s surprising: Kotokel is gradually recovering! It has already become catch fish. After all, only a few years have passed since the disaster, and already such an amazing result. Of course, Kotokel is flowing, but the water from it flows through the river system into Baikal. Why was the water of the “Glorious Sea” not damaged? Because it does not “settle” for centuries, but is processed, moreover, by a large amount of plankton. In addition, both lakes are replenished by the purest glacial water. Modern scientists believe that it is melt water that has the most favorable structure. It seems that the second “culprit” for the cleanliness of Lake Baikal has been found.
Melt and bottom water
Can the sun warm up the entire thickness of the waters of Lake Baikal? Of course, such a moment comes, otherwise there would always be ice at the bottom of the lake. But the temperature of the bottom water still remains very low. As a result, its structure is close to melt water. Pathogenic organisms do not reproduce at this temperature, and if you arrange for drinking water to be taken from the depths, then it will not have to be chlorinated in order to drink. Just like we drink cold water from springs that rises from the depths of the earth. Since there is no other lake in the world with such depth, there is no other water with such remarkable properties. If you take the most big lake- The Caspian Sea, the water in it is salty and unsuitable for drinking.
Melt water is considered useful not only because of its structure, but also because of the small amount of salts. When it flows from the mountains during the melting of glaciers, it is practically not saturated with minerals, because in the vicinity of Lake Baikal the river banks consist of crystalline rocks that are poorly soluble in water. As a result, the water remains soft, making it suitable for drinking and bathing. Doctors believe that hard water can clog joints and contribute to the deposition of salts in them. The blood flow also suffers from it, not to mention digestive system and kidneys. But soft water can work wonders, and in the spring the waters of Baikal are close to distilled, but this natural waters, and not obtained artificially.
Examples for contrast
A modern car enthusiast is unlikely to fill the gas tank with low-quality fuel, realizing that the car may deteriorate. At the same time, for example, in the water supply of the city of Taganrog, far from Lake Baikal, water flowed with such a salt content that it tasted bitter and salty. And people drank it! Tourists who came to this “resort-industrial” center jokingly called the tap water coming from the Mius River “tap Borjomi.” Or they even believed that the water brought there was not even from slightly salted Sea of Azov, and immediately from Black! Even six spoons of sugar could not “correct” the taste of tea with such water.
Against this background, you begin to appreciate the unique water of Baikal even more. After all, each person’s body is unique, and it, no less than a car, needs clean “fuel”. Since the body is 80% water, our health depends on the purity of what we are forced to drink. And how useful soft water is for bathing! Not only does it feel gentle when touched, but it also has a beneficial effect on the health of the skin and hair, as well as their appearance. That is why the unique water of the lake must be treated with the utmost care.
When you begin to understand the value of a unique lake
Talk about how all living things came out of water has become categorically boring. Now anyone will ignore this phrase. If you tell a person that Baikal is one fifth of all fresh water reserves on Earth, then this will be perceived only as statistics. But you just have to plunge into this amazing world relict lake, imbued with its grandeur, as you begin to almost feel with your skin that this fragile balance can be destroyed. And even if now Baikal water is able to heal itself, experimenting with it or giving up by throwing garbage on the shore or into an oncoming wave, they say, this too will be recycled, it’s not worth it.
But each of us can contribute to the preservation of unique water. If you are used to not burdening nature with the “husk of civilization”, but to peacefully contemplate it, if it is your habit to collect garbage in a bag and take it to the first waste container you come across, if you do not break branches unnecessarily, and make fires in old fireplaces and always extinguish after yourself, or even better, use other means of preparing food, then come to Baikal and take a place there, not allowing those who live only one day to settle.
To get a feel for the idea, you can visit special ecological tours that are organized here on Lake Baikal. Around the lake there are nature reserves and reserves that are open to visitors, which are limited by the number of people passing through the area in one day. These territories are protected by the state, and for others we are personally responsible when we visit them, live there and leave them again. How clean the water in Lake Baikal will remain depends on how attentive we are to nature.
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...Our boat was sailing along Lake Baikal along the Olkhon Island when the guide invited us to try Baikal water. Leaning over the side, she scooped up water with a mug and handed it to us with a smile.
- Can you drink it straight away like this? - we asked almost in unison.
“Well, I wouldn’t risk trying it myself near the shore, but when we are almost in the middle of the Small Sea, you can drink the water without any restrictions.”
This is where we learned about the main Baikal cleaner - Epishura Baikal. Well, why is the Baikal one clear, another endemic, but what is epishura? big question, with the answer to which we will begin to reveal the secrets of the water of the deepest lake in the world.
Epishura- this is a type of small crustacean that eats everything that gets into Baikal water. True, this cannot be taken literally, but they do an excellent job with all organic matter. There is even an opinion that if a drowned person cannot be found on the first day, the search can be stopped; the epishura will eat the body completely and without a trace. They were even popularly nicknamed “Baikal ants.”
Epishura crustaceans are small, their size does not exceed 1.5 mm, but their number is so large that they account for up to 90% of the total Baikal biomass; this is the main food for omul and other fish inhabiting the lake. In turn, epishura eats almost all Baikal algae.
Epishura reproduces like this: the female lays eggs every 10-20 days in a bag in which she bears them, and up to 60 eggs are collected in the bag varying degrees maturity, and in total the female lays up to 200 eggs per year. In case of any danger, the female tears the sac and the eggs fall out into the water. Surprisingly, they do not die, but continue to develop. The larvae go through 12 stages in their development, molting each time during the transition from stage to stage. Once they become adults, crustaceans no longer grow. During the course of a year, two generations of epishura manage to develop and grow, so it may seem that it is developing continuously.
Epishura lives at various depths, completely unresponsive to changes in pressure, but more often it can be found in the open part of Lake Baikal in the upper 250-meter layer where it lives all year round. In shallow water it appears only during the ice-covered period and in early spring, at the time of ice melting. The only limitation for it is the water temperature, which should not exceed 12 degrees, with more high temperature crustaceans die. The life of epishura is generally short - on average 360 days.
The crustacean is also found in the Angara, as well as in the Irkutsk and Bratsk reservoirs; in the latter, the epishura develops and has become a self-reproducing population.
So what does this almost microscopic crustacean mean for Baikal? Most importantly, he manages to pass all the Baikal water through himself at least ten times during the year, filtering it and purifying it of all organic impurities, and he absolutely does not care about the nature of the pollution, as long as it does not turn out to be destructive for himself, such as, for example, Pulp and paper mill emissions. They turned out to be too tough for the epishura, and crustaceans in that area began to die en masse. Now, with the plant's operation suspended, they are slowly beginning to return.
The role of epishura does not end there; it is the most important link in food chain. It has been established that to raise 1 kg of omul fry, 10 kg of epishura are needed. The grown-up omul changes its food supply, switching to another, already predatory crustacean, called macroheptopus. But even here we cannot do without epishura. The fact is that to grow 1 kg of this crustacean, you also need at least 10 kg of epishura, which it feeds on.
But here another question arises: if there is so much epishura, and it completely eats up all the algae, where does the oxygen in Baikal water come from, because in its absence there will be no life, everything will die - both fish and crustaceans?
But this is the second riddle, the answer to which explains the reason for the unique transparency of Baikal water. There is such a device - a white Secchi disk; it is with its help that scientists determine the transparency of water bodies. So, it is visible in Baikal to a depth of 40 meters, in the Caspian Sea - 25 meters, Sevan - 20 meters. Even the vaunted alpine lakes are inferior to Baikal. Officially, the water of the Sargasso Sea is considered the standard of transparency, but in Baikal at a depth of 250-1200 meters it is no less. Of course, in shallow waters and at the mouths of rivers, transparency is much lower, and in the spring, when algae begin to develop rapidly, the white disk is already invisible at a depth of 8-10 meters, but here the epishuras get down to business, and everything falls into place.
The fact is that Baikal water contains extremely few dissolved mineral salts, no more than 100 mg per liter, while in other lakes - up to 400 or more, in addition, there is no hydrogen sulfide, and there is an unusually large amount of oxygen. Thus, at great depths its content is 70-80% of water saturation, and in the surface layer it reaches 11-14 mg per liter. This excess oxygen occurs due to active vertical water exchange during periods of freezing of the lake and its release from the shackles of ice.
All this is caused by several reasons that do not happen in other bodies of water. First of all, the lake is fed mainly by glaciers, that is, the purest, almost distilled water initially flows into it. In addition, the water that gets into the lake settles there for years; the replacement of deep waters with surface waters occurs there within a hundred years. extra years. It is estimated that during the entire existence of the lake, the water in it has changed 50,000 times.
It is known that even in hot summer, the water in the surface layers of Lake Baikal does not warm up above 10-16 degrees, at a depth of 20 m it never exceeds 10 degrees, and deeper than 250 m it always has the same temperature - 3-4 degrees. This is where there is room for epishura.
Scientists around the world have recognized that Baikal water is ideal for humans in its taste and has no analogues in the world, and in its purity it is not inferior to the water of Crater Lake in the USA, which is recognized as the world standard for water purity. Since 1992, industrial bottling of Baikal water has been carried out, which is taken from a depth of 400 meters.
In conclusion, a few numbers. Baikal contains 80% of Russia's fresh water - 23.6 thousand cubic meters. km, this is a fifth of all fresh water on the planet, and all this water is potable. And to a large extent, the tiny crustacean, Baikal epishura, is “to blame” for this: each liter of lake water contains from 30 to 50 thousand individuals, and total mass is more than 4 million tons.
Academician Grachev, who served Baikal for more than thirty years as the director of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, knows more about Baikal than anyone, one might say, everything.
No,” Mikhail Alexandrovich objects. - Nobody knows everything about Baikal.
How about half?
What is “half the knowledge”?
I am silent in embarrassment: it seemed to me that Grachev was... Full member Russian Academy science, who earned this title in the field of studying Baikal, enriching us and all science with this knowledge...
Meanwhile, he tells how at the very beginning of his work on Baikal, his ship of science hit the shore: in 1987-1988, some unknown evil spirits attacked the seal on the lake and killed about 6 thousand animals out of 100 thousand living in the lake.
Immune layer
The media began to ring: yeah, they waited with their pulp mill, they poisoned the holy water, and now they are trying to hide the ends in the water. It took six months of work “from dawn to dusk” for the method molecular biology, applied by the institute’s scientists, gave the exact answer:
The seal was decimated by canine distemper. The epidemic stopped spontaneously.
No one in the world has ever recorded the phenomenon that pinnipeds in general, and in particular the endemic freshwater seal, suffered from canine distemper. Morbillivirus in a scientific way.
Now all scientific world knows. But for the staff of the Limnological Institute, other knowledge is more valuable: until now, there has been no repetition of this story with the death of the seal, an immune layer appeared in it, God had mercy, therefore.
In the history of Baikal there have been various reasons environmental incidents, but they all lasted one to two years. And then they “dissolved” and stopped. But the catastrophe with the rapid reproduction of Spirogyra, recorded in 2011, continues to this day. Next, scientists recorded a mass death of sponges, the cause of which has not yet been found. It was only discovered that the sponge is attacked by specialized cyanobacteria that produce a toxic substance.
Baikal is offered a comprehensive project: selection, transportation and bottling of water on site
Scientists suspected that the “hellish mixture” lay in the wastewater treatment plants: the overuse of cleaning powders produced by Western companies increased the amount of phosphorus in the wastewater, and mixed with feces it turned out to be a catalyst for spirogyra. However, Academician Grachev spoke about this in detail on the pages of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Surprisingly, this problem with spirogyra and the death of sponges scientists of the institute had to decide with the help of... prosecutors: on private wastewater treatment plants, where it was supposed to go environmental disaster, they were not allowed in... And not all officials reached the scientists’ demand: human waste must be dumped into the sewer system, and not into Lake Baikal. Yes, process them to a biologically pure level.
Staphylococcus storm
In the 2013 edition of the “State Report on Baikal”, the section “Bottling of deep Baikal water” (p. 259) first appeared under number 1.4.7. It especially emphasized: our Baikal acquired a new international “rank” and worldwide sympathy mainly because it has “a colossal volume (23 thousand cubic kilometers) of pure fresh water, unique in its kind. How is it manifested?
Baikal water has negative value redox potential (ORP) and can be considered as a fairly powerful antioxidant. This water:
Normalizes microflora gastrointestinal tract and helps suppress pathogenic and opportunistic microflora, including Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Nigella (dysentery), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and others;
Has antimutagenic (anticarcinogenic) properties;
Restores and activates immune system in people with weakened immune systems, including after radiation and chemotherapy;
Suppresses hepatitis C, herpes and influenza viruses;
Shows antidiabetic effect.
Its high content of dissolved oxygen at all depths is from 9.6 to 12.8 mg/l, or from 87% to 110% of saturation: this is 3-4 times more than at any ordinary water(12 mg/l - Baikal, 3-5 mg/l - ordinary, 2 mg/l artesian). Consumption of oxygen-enriched water is accompanied by an increase in oxygen content in the blood, a decrease in heart rate, and improved digestion.
Acid-base balance of Baikal water (Ph=7.5) and human body(Ph=7.35) are practically the same. This means that such water does not carry any irritating factors and is perfectly absorbed by the human body, including infants.
The low mineralization of Baikal water (120 mg/l) allows it to be used as a therapeutic and prophylactic against kidney stones and other diseases caused by drinking water with a high potassium content.
We will ruin the budget if we transport Baikal water to the capital cheaply, and if we charge too much, we will ruin the business.
"Given the fact that with drinking water Only 15 percent of it enters the human body daily requirement V minerals ah, the rest is filled with various food products, deep Baikal water can be used for constant use both for drinking purposes and for cooking various types food. According to the conclusion of the East Siberian scientific center Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy medical sciences Baikal water is recommended for normalizing water-salt metabolism, is especially useful for diseases of the musculoskeletal system, ischemic, hypertension, urolithiasis, reduces the risk of arthritis, atherosclerosis, the state report informs us. - The unique drinking properties and quality of Baikal deep water are confirmed by certificates of compliance with the requirements of drinking water standards in Russia, Germany, Japan, South Korea and China. German Institute Fresenius confirmed the compliance of water from Lake Baikal with WHO requirements and guidelines for drinking water European Community".
Fence from depth
Back in 1992, the director of the Limnological Institute, Mikhail Grachev, reported to the Russian government that the team of scientists had fulfilled the order to prepare scientific program production of deep Baikal drinking water in the amount of 20 million bottles per year.
The institute developed and patented a “Method for obtaining Baikal drinking water” (patent N 2045478 from 1992), including: water intake from the deep water layer of Lake Baikal, pre-treatment of water by coarse filtration; fine cleaning through a filter system with successively decreasing pore diameters; subsequent sterilization of water with ozone or ultraviolet radiation; bottling into sterile containers, the free space of which is filled with an oxygen-ozone mixture; capping in a filtered atmosphere. Water is taken from a depth of 100-300 meters from the bottom (depth from the surface is at least 400 meters) from the so-called core or lens of Baikal, where it is protected by the water column from surface pollution and where is it stored? constant temperature 4.2 C. In 1995, the Institute improved it to the level of invention.
Patents for own inventions OJSC "Baikal Waters", LLC "Baikalika" and some private individuals have methods for obtaining Baikal drinking water. In short, everything is ready for the start of large-scale trade Baikal water, some calculations have already been announced.
A project for 100 million tons per year is being proposed to Baikal. This is 0.14 percent of the expenditure part water balance lakes. Why exactly 100 million? By European standards, the production of mineral water of less than 100 million bottles per year is considered unprofitable.
The project is complex: selection, transportation and bottling of water on site. The parameters of the project are as follows: annual revenue - 1.4 trillion rubles, tax revenue to budgets of all levels - 300 billion rubles per year, investments - 400 billion rubles.
This is the annual revenue from the sale of fourteen hundredths of a percent of the consumable part of Baikal water - a renewable resource. Scientists give a threshold: without damaging the Baikal ecosystem, up to 400 million tons of water per year can be taken from it (0.5 percent of the lake’s water balance).
As can be seen from the table, the volume of trade in Baikal water is growing, but not at the rate we would like. More precisely, by 38 percent per year - a good pace. But absolute sales volumes do not suit anyone. So far, only Baikal Water LLC is operating at a break-even level. Thus, the current trade in Baikal water can only be profitable due to inflated prices.
The aggravation of the problem of providing the population of Russia and the planet, especially the Asia-Pacific region, with high-quality drinking water requires the development of strategic documents for the development of water resources Baikal. This is the task set in the latest edition of the State Report. True, who exactly should be doing this yesterday is silent.
Price records
Given the current realities, a liter of oil is sold for less than 20 rubles (1 barrel for 50 US dollars). For 1 liter of Baikal water in Moscow they pay 80 rubles. At gas stations they currently charge you up to 40 rubles per liter of gasoline. Question: who is crazy - people or prices?
To get a liter of gasoline, you need to invest in exploration, drilling wells, extraction and transportation of what is produced, and refining oil into gasoline. And this is all spending, spending, spending... As a rule, billions of dollars.
To extract Baikal water, you don’t need such expenses: you bought a license, lowered the pipe into Baikal and pump as much as you can. Pass it through fine filters right there on the shore - and... grab your turnip: how to deliver Baikal water to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ryazan, Kazan, Elista, Rostov, Voronezh, Brest, etc.? Finally, to China, which suffers greatly from a shortage of fresh water. And ready to pay.
So far only on Russian railways. From Irkutsk to Moscow - 5042 kilometers plus 63 kilometers to Lake Baikal. The carrying capacity of one railway tank is 60 tons, or 60 thousand liters. Freight tariffs on Russian Railways are inexorable: the previous leaders of the monopoly drove them to crazy levels: in order to get a positive balance, you have to sell water in millions of liters. To deliver a million liters, a train of 100 tanks (refrigerated cars) will be required - that’s five full-fledged trains.
12 million people live in Moscow. The medical norm for everyone’s life is 2 liters of drinking water per day. This is a minimum of 20 million liters of daily requirement. Well, let half of this be 10 million liters. 50 freight routes with 20 tanks each will not be able to solve the problem - it is too much for the Trans-Siberian Railway.
We will ruin the budget if we transport Baikal water to the capital cheaply, but at a high price, two to three times more expensive than gasoline, we will ruin the businessmen. Few people will buy it - working citizens will not be able to afford such a price.
But this, as they say, is not the limit.
Records are set by "Talaya" water, a half-liter of which costs 112 rubles in chain stores. 98 kopecks. Only the French one can compete with it in price - 96 rubles. 98 kopecks, and from ours - “Holy Source” from Kostroma - I pay 40 rubles each at the vending machine at the Bakovka railway station (my fault, since yesterday it’s already 45 rubles for a half-liter, followed by “Baikal” from Irkutsk for 36 RUR 78 kopecks for 450 g. And at the end of this row “Shishkin Les” from the village of the same name near Moscow for 14 rubles for 400 grams.
Drink for your health
Speculative flavor of prices, like characteristic feature unstoppable Russian democracy, not only hurts the eyes, but also the family budgets. The same "Talaya" has already surpassed the gasoline barrier more than five times.
If we switch to water for 113 rubles, then this is the arithmetic we get. It is known: according to medical indicators, each of us should drink 2 liters of water per day, let’s say “Taloy” - for 452 rubles. We will pay 13 thousand 560 rubles a month - drink to your health! But not every pensioner will have enough of his entire monthly pension for such “healing” water: drink water, eat water - you will become a fish from the pond.
You can understand Irkutsk residents for the high price of Baikal water. From Baikal to Moscow - 5100 kilometers: railway charges up to three-quarters of the price of each bottle for transportation.
From Stavropol to Moscow - 1600 km, more than three times closer. I don’t think that Stavropol water has any quality advantages over licensed Baikal water. Although, of course, last word for the buyer. And yet. It may be objected to me that “melt” water is of a special kind - it is obtained from the mountain streams of the Caucasus during the melting of glaciers.
But, have mercy! All three hundred and three rivers and streams flowing into Baikal flow from mountain ranges. And the lake itself is located at an altitude of more than 400 meters above sea level (according to Pacific calculations). The Baikal basin rests in a ring of mountain ranges: from the south - the Khamar-Daban ridge; from the southwest - Primorsky Ridge; from the north - the Tynnir and Verkhneangarsky ridges; from the northeast - Golodninsky Range and others.
That is, by all indications, the price of Baikal water should be much more expensive than “Talaya” and all sorts of others. But Baikal contains more than 90 percent of Russia's fresh water reserves; total annual flow our largest rivers- less than 10 percent of Baikal’s water volume.
The more goods, the lower its price: it turns out that Baikal still religiously adheres to the fundamental postulate of the market. And he remains a loser: something is wrong here. Who will figure it out?
The water of Lake Baikal is very clean and transparent.
It can be used for drinking almost without any cleaning or processing. This water is soft, chemically pure and homogeneous; it is saturated with oxygen throughout its entire thickness. Even alpine lakes, famous for the transparency of their water, are inferior to Baikal.
One of the ancient legends says that in very ancient times, a stern hero named Baikal lived in these places. And he had several hundred sons and only one daughter - Angara, the most beautiful girl in the world. The sons worked tirelessly day and night. Snow and glaciers were melted in the mountains, crystal water was collected and driven from all over the area into a huge basin. And then one day Angara heard from traveling singers that a young hero, the handsome Yenisei, lived beyond the neighboring mountains. She fell in love with the Angara Yenisei and escaped from the crystal palace from the bottom of the underwater kingdom, where her strict father imprisoned her. Having learned about the escape, the enraged Baikal rushed in pursuit, grabbed a huge block of stone and threw it at his rebellious daughter, but missed. Since then, this block has been lying at the river’s exit from the lake; it is now called the Shaman’s stone. In the end, Anya ara ran to the Yenisei and hugged him, and they flowed together to the icy northern sea.
Scientists have calculated that 554 rivers (“sons of Baikal”) flow into Baikal. Most of them begin in short, stormy streams on mountain slopes. Only 123 rivers are longer than 10 km, the largest of which is the Selenga River. However, the area of the lake’s drainage basin (more than 550 thousand km) is huge and comparable to the area of France. The mighty, full-flowing Angara River flows out of the lake, which takes up to 85% of all the water that comes in a year] The Buryats say about it: “The daughter of the old man of Baikal is ruining it!” Baikal renders great influence on the Angara regime, regulating its flow, it is like a natural reservoir. Thanks to the Angara, water exchange occurs in the lake. However, its speed is very low - for a full shift water mass in the lake it takes over 380 years. This is why many of the properties of Baikal water are very stable and constant.
So why is the water in the lake so clean and so soft? First of all, because Baikal collects its waters from a large, almost unpolluted area covered with dense forests. Also here sufficient quantity precipitation, moderate evaporation and big arrival well filtered groundwater. The lake shores are composed of hard crystalline rocks, which, when weathered, form sand and add almost no impurities to the water.
In addition, Baikal had its own “orderlies” - epishura crustaceans, which are not found anywhere else in the world. It is these creatures (a thousand of these little ones weigh only one milligram) that produce biological treatment Baikal waters. They feed on microorganisms that cause water blooms. The exceptional softness of Baikal water is explained by its very low mineralization. For example, lake water contains three times less silicon than tributary water. It turns out that it is extracted from the water diatoms, which build their shells from silicon.
Baikal water is different from sea water. It is soft - it contains very few minerals - about 0.1 g/l. IN sea water salt content is 35 g/l. Sea water cannot be used because great content salts in water will cause serious health problems.
According to Russian sanitary and hygienic standards, the salt content in drinking water should not exceed 1 g/l. It is easy to calculate that the amount of salts in Baikal water is 10 times less than in standard drinking water, and 350 times less than in sea water.
1—in sea water; 2 - in fresh water; 3 - in Baikal water
Transparency
The transparency of the water depends on the amount of suspended substances - particles of clay, sand, as well as on the smallest organisms living in the lake - algae, bacteria, crustaceans. There are very few suspended substances in Baikal. Therefore, while on a ship in clear, calm weather, you can see the bottom of Lake Baikal above depths of tens of meters.
Measuring water clarity
The transparency of water on Lake Baikal is the highest among freshwater bodies. It reaches 40 m. Scientists measure water transparency using a metal disc painted white- Secchi disk.
Transparent waters of Lake Baikal. Baikal ice
Why is the transparency of Baikal water, measured using a Secchi disk, so high? The fact is that it comes with tributaries, mainly from the mountains, which, like the lake basin itself, consist of solid crystalline rocks. Therefore, the amount of suspended matter that reduces water transparency is small.
Oxygen saturation. Clean water factory
The water of Baikal also differs from the waters of other reservoirs in that it contains a lot of oxygen - up to 14 mg/l. This is 2 times more than in ordinary lakes. Why? The colder the water, the greater the solubility of oxygen. And in Baikal, even the surface layers of water warm up very little, not to mention the depths below 100 m, where the water temperature throughout the year ranges from 4 to 3.2 °C. That's why cold water Lake Baikal is saturated with oxygen.
After water enters the lake, the inhabitants of Lake Baikal come into action. Algae work like a myriad of microscopic factories to enrich water with oxygen. During their life activity, they release oxygen, and its concentration in water, especially in spring, can increase by short time, even up to 16-18 mg/l. Algae oxygenate the water and absorb pollutants.
The planktonic crustacean epishura filters out and eats living algae cells and bacteria, returning clean water to Lake Baikal. Bacteria and fungi decompose dead organisms and pollutants. Bottom crustaceans, mollusks, and worms feed on plant remains and weakened animals, preventing decay processes from developing. Baikal sponges filter water by consuming small animals and algae and trap pollutants in their bodies. Where harmful substances enter Lake Baikal from the shores chemicals, coastal plants absorb them from the water, and after dying, they are carried into the bottom sediments.
Baikal - clean water factory
So, the properties of Baikal water: - low salinity, transparency, oxygen saturation - are associated with the weak mineralization of the lake’s tributaries, low water temperature and the activity of living organisms living in the lake. Therefore, Baikal can be called a “clean water factory.”
These processes have been going on for many millions of years, and will continue as long as Baikal plants and animals retain their viability. The state of the living world of Baikal can be affected by pollution that comes from river waters, from the shores of the lake, from large and small ships, from human economic and domestic activities.
Since Baikal water is poorly mineralized, people who constantly use it for drinking experience a lack of minerals. It can be replenished by consuming mineral waters. However, consultation with doctors is necessary, since in some diseases, excess minerals can be harmful.
The missing amount of minerals can also be obtained from food, since it contains much more of them than in water. For example, daily norm People can obtain calcium intake by eating 50 grams of cheese or 100 grams of cottage cheese per day. To get the same amount of calcium from regular drinking water, you would have to drink three buckets!
50 grams of cheese or 3 buckets of water?
Due to the low content of minerals, Baikal water is also called ultra-fresh. Irkutsk doctors, having studied the deep water of Baikal and analyzed the scientific data of other researchers on the influence of ultra-fresh waters on humans, came to the conclusion that deep Baikal water can be used in the treatment of certain diseases of the joints, kidneys, and liver. Baikal water is also suitable for drinking in areas where water of local origin contains increased amount salts
Glossary
Renewable natural resource- a resource that is restored in environment after using it.
Non-renewable natural resource- a resource that, when used, is converted into other substances and is not restored in nature in its original form.
Permanent tributaries- non-drying tributaries.
Temporary tributaries- tributaries that can fill with water only in rainy, wet years.
Mineralization- the amount of minerals (salts) contained in 1 liter of water.
Soft water- water with low salt content.
Hard water- water with a high salt content.
Transparency- water permeability to sunlight.
Oxygen saturation of water- the amount of oxygen dissolved in water.
