Luminescence of Baikal water as a dynamic background of the Baikal-GVD Neutrino Telescope

The Baikal-GVD is a neutrino telescope situated in the deepest freshwater lake in the world — Lake Baikal. The design of the Baikal-GVD trigger system allows also to study the ambient light of the lake. The analysis of the optical light activity of Baikal water, particularly, time and spatial variations of the luminescence activity for data collected in years 2018, 2019, and 2020 is presented. For the first time we observed highly luminescent layer moving upwards with maximal speed of 28 m/day in January 2021.

Psychologo-Economic and Environmental Assessment Baikal Resources in the Geopolitics of China and Russia

In geopolitics, the concepts of geography and territory are reduced to the fundamental aspects of relations between States, they serve as a basic method of interpreting the past, they act as the main factors of human existence, organizing all other aspects of existence around them. It is in this perspective that the article examines the attitude to Baikal in the history of the mutually linked foreign policy of Russia and China. It is noted that the Mongols and Manchus, who once conquered China, not only found themselves largely assimilated by the defeated society, but over time, a large part of their ancestral territories began to be perceived as native Chinese. Far from being justified, this also applied to Baikal, although the Yakut etymology of its name, associated with the ethnic ancestors of the Yakuts — the Huns, has been clearly traced since ancient times. Since ancient times, Buryats and Evenks who voluntarily became part of Russia have lived around Baikal. Modern development is characterized by the “penetration” of the Chinese into the business of Asian Russia. In the Baikal region, this focus has basically three goals: forest, clean water, and ownership of land and other natural resources. In a special row, it is necessary to put projects for supplying the population of some Chinese territories with Baikal water, which is planned to be transported both in bottled form and in the future through pipes.

MEASURING THE OPTICAL CHARACTERISTICS AT THE BAIKAL NEUTRINO TELESCOPE SITE

The deep underwater Neutrino Telescope Baikal NT1000 has been deployed in Lake Baikal since 2015. Detector is mainly designed to study astrophysical neutrino fluxes at energies from a few TeV up to 100 PeV. The first stage NT1000 will be an array of 2300 optical modules with an instrumental volume of about 0.4 cubic kilometers, which is planned to be completed by 2020–2021. The properties of Baikal water and a combination of other related circumstances make it possible to create a unique installation in the world practice in sensitivity and angular resolution, opening up new horizons in astronomy and astrophysics. In this article basic information about the NT1000 and the being developed method to measure the optical characteristics at the detector’s water medium using a high-power laser light source are provided.

Methane hydrate emergence from Lake Baikal: direct observations, modelling, and hydrate footprints in seasonal ice cover

This paper provides a novel report of methane hydrates rising from bottom sediments to the surface of Lake Baikal, validated by photo and video records. The ascent of hydrates in the water column was confirmed by hydroacoustic data showing rising objects with velocities significantly exceeding the typical speeds (18–25 cm s−1) of gas bubbles. Mathematical modelling along with velocity and depth estimates of the presumed methane hydrates coincided with values observed from echograms. Modelling results also showed that a methane hydrate fragment with initial radius of 2.5 cm or greater could reach the surface of Lake Baikal given summer water column temperature conditions. Results further show that while methane bubbles released from the deep sedimentary reservoir would dissolve in the Lake Baikal water column, transport in hydrate form is not only viable but may represent a previously overlooked source of surface methane with subsequent emissions to the atmosphere. Methane hydrates captured within the ice cover may also cause the formation of unique ice structures and morphologies observed around Lake Baikal. Sampling of these ice structures detected methane content that exceeded concentrations measured in surrounding ice and from the atmosphere demonstrating a link with the methane transport processes described here.

Environmental drivers define contrasting microbial habitats, diversity, and community structure in Lake Baikal, Siberia

ABSTRACTUnderstanding how microbial communities respond to environmental change requires knowing the main drivers of their structure, diversity and potential resilience. Lake Baikal is the world’s most ancient, deep, voluminous, and biodiverse lake, holding 20 percent of unfrozen fresh water that is undergoing rapid warming. Despite its global importance, little is known about Baikal’s bacterioplankton communities and their drivers. In this extensive survey, we show that temperature, along with stratification, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen, but not geographic distance, define major microbial habitats and community similarity. Mixed layer and deep water communities exhibited contrasting patterns of richness, diversity and evenness, and comprised different cohesive modules in the whole Baikal OTU co-occurrence network. The network’s small-world properties indicated likely resistance to perturbations but sensitivity to abundance changes of central, most connected OTUs. Previous studies showed Baikal water temperature rising by over 1.2°C since 1946, and this trend is predicted to accelerate. Because temperature emerged as the most significant predictor of the mixed layer community structure, we hypothesize that it is most likely to drive future community changes. Understanding how temperature and other abiotic factors structure microbial communities in this and other rapidly changing ecosystems will allow better predictions of ecosystem responses to anthropogenic stressors.

Development of equipment for the monitoring system of the Baikal water area

This article is devoted to the development of a monitoring system of Lake Baikal. The developed system should provide ongoing monitoring of hydrophysical parameters of water in different areas of the lake, which will allow identifying signs of environmental pollution of Lake Baikal timely. A distinctive feature of the created system is high productivity at low economic costs per accounting point. The appropriate selection of the component base and software optimization of algorithms will allow achieving the maximum range of data transmission at a distance of up to 100 km in an open area. The interim results of the monitoring system development are presented, the tasks for the current year are defined.

Luminescence of water in Lake Baikal observed with the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope

We present data on the luminescence of the Baikal water medium collected with the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope. This three-dimensional array of light sensors allows the observation of time and spatial variations of the ambient light field. In 2016, we observed a maximum of luminescence activity between July and October.