Industrial and wildfire aerosol pollution over world heritage Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal is the biggest reservoir of fresh water with unique flora and fauna; presently it is negatively affected by climate change, water warming, industrial emissions, shipping, touristic activities, and Siberian forest fires. The assessment of air pollution - related Baikal's ecosystem damage is an unsolved problem. Ship, based expedition exploring the Baikal atmospheric aerosol loading, was performed over the lake area in July 2018.

[Metagenomic Analysis of Microbial Communities of the Sediments of the Kara Sea Shelf and the Yenisei Bay].

Microbial diversity in the sediments of the Kara Sea shelf and the southern Yenisei Bay, differing in pore water mineralization, was studied using massive parallel pyrosequencing according to the 454 (Roche) technology. Members of the same phyla (Cyanobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes) predominated in bacterial communities of the sediments, while their ratio and taxonomic composition varied within the phyla and depended on pore water mineralization. Increasing salinity gradient was found to coincide with increased share of the γ-Proteobacteria and decreased abundance of α- and β-Proteo- bacteria, as well as of the phyla Verrucomicrobia, Chloroflexi, Chlorobi, and Acidobacteria.

Stratified distribution of nutrients and extremophile biota within freshwater ice covering the surface of Lake Baikal.

Biological entities and gradients of selected chemicals within the seemingly barren ice layers covering Lake Baikal were investigated. Ice cores 40-68 cm long were obtained from in shore and offshore sites of Southern Lake Baikal during the cold period of a year (March-April) in 2007 and 2008. In microscopic observations of the melted ice, both algae and bacteria were found in considerable numbers (>10(3) cells/L and >10(4) cells/ml, respectively).

Air-quality modelling in the Lake Baikal region.

In this paper, we assess the status of the air quality in the Lake Baikal region which is strongly influenced by the presence of anthropogenic pollution sources. We combined the local data, with global databases, remote sensing imagery and modelling tools. This approach allows to inventorise the air-polluting sources and to quantify the air-quality concentration levels in the Lake Baikal region to a reasonable level, despite the fact that local data are scarcely available.