Limnology in Russia

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On February 12-14, 2024, the Russian scientific conference “Limnology in Russia” was held in St. Petersburg (Fig. 1). The conference took place as part of events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Institute of Limnology, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The conference was organized by the Institute of Limnology, the Russian Academy of Sciences - St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Department of Earth Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

Fig.1. In the conference “Limnology in Russia”. Russian Geographical Society, St. Peterburg, 12.02.2024

During 80 years the Institute of Limnology has been working as an interdisciplinary one and unites specialists from different fields of study, which determined the conference themes. General problems of limnology and applied research; hydrobiological and ichthyological studies of lakes; chemistry of water and lakes sediments; paleolimnological studies; modern climate changes and hydrological processes in large lakes; modeling of hydrological and biogeochemical processes in lakes were discussed.

The topics of the presentations covered studies of freshwater and salt, lowland and mountain lakes. The problems of protection and use of water resources, legal, organizational and technical issues of conservation and restoration of aquatic ecosystems and populations of aquatic organisms were covered. Aspects of the study of hydrobiocenoses from the taxonomy and faunistic of aquatic organisms to the use of various methods of mathematical and statistical analysis for processing the obtained data were discussed. The results of hydrochemical and geochemical studies of different-scale freshwater ecosystems were presented. Contemporary climate changes and climate reconstructions of the past were discussed, including hydrological problems of the past and present. Many presentations were devoted to the lake’s history, including both the results analysis of existing research and the presentation of new materials made out at a new modern level. Modelling issues were considered using both lakes and reservoirs as examples.

The geography of the research presented at the conference covered a significant part of the Russia territory, as well as the Republic of Belarus and Germany (Fig. 2). The reports included to studies of both large (Ladoga, Onega, Baikal, Aral, Caspian Sea, Khanka, Kronotskoye) and small lakes (lakes of the North-West, North-East and center of the European part of Russia, the Kola Peninsula, Taimyr, Siberia, Central Asia). Among the large lakes, especially many research results of Lakes Ladoga and Onega were presented; presentations on them were made at all sessions of the conference. Interesting presentations were devoted to the island lakes of the Valaam and Solovetsky archipelagos and the Arctic islands. The problems of reservoirs were discussed using the examples of Rybinsk, Bureya, Cheboksary, Mozhaisk and others reservoirs.

Fig.2. The geography of the research presented at the conference “Limnology in Russia”.

The conference was mainly held in person, some reports were presented remotely. A live broadcast of all sessions was also organized. 124 presentations were heard (91 oral presentations, 9 online presentations and 24 poster presentations). The total number of participants at the meetings was more than 200. The conference included participates from Belarus University.

The presented special issue of the journal includes together publications mainly prepared based on the materials of the last conference. The topics of the articles represent current problems that aroused great interest during discussion at the conference. Thus, the vertical distribution of annual maximum water temperatures in the southern coastal zone of Lake Baikal is discussed in an article by researchers of the Institute of Limnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences-St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Limnological Institute of the SB RAS and Irkutsk State University. In the article by M.A. Naumenko and his colleagues established various features of the vertical distribution of annual maximum water temperatures and constructed empirical functions to assess the relationships between them and the dates of their occurrence and depth. It is concluded that often an extreme event, such as a temperature maximum, has a greater impact on a lake ecosystem than changes in average conditions.

The article by A.A. Tkach is devoted to paleolimnological studies from Moscow State University. At the Paleolimnological session of the conference the need to study the surface layer of lake sediments to obtain data on the modern distribution of pollen, algae and microfauna in the studied lakes was repeatedly discussed. These data are the basis for paleoreconstructions. The presented article is dedicated to the modern coastal ostracod complex of the Caspian Sea. The ostracodological method is important for studying the largest lake in the world, because it perfectly captures, first of all, the lake levels dynamics. However, the possibility of this method hasn’t yet been sufficiently used to the Caspian Sea history study.

Article by N.A. Belkina from the IVPS Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences is dedicated to hydrochemical studies of Karelian lakes. The results of the study are relevant for both hydrochemistry and paleolimnology. The studied patterns of formation of the chemical composition of lake sediments can be used both for the modern state of lakes and for reconstructing changes in the geochemical background of the lake in the past.

Assessing the nutrient load on a reservoir based on the results of modeling the runoff and removal of nutrients from watersheds is the topic of the article by S.V. Yasinsky et al. The article was prepared by researches of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Limnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Modeling data made it possible to estimate the total nutrient load on the Cheboksary reservoir and the contribution of natural removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from the catchment area.

Hydrobiological studies are presented in an article by researches of Nizhny Novgorod State University. Article by E.M. Sharagina with co-authors is devoted to the dominant species identifying and functional complexes of phytoplankton in the Middle Volga basin karst lakes. The characteristics of the composition, ecological-geographical and functional structure of the dominant phytoplankton species of three different types of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region lakes Klyuchik, Svetloyar and Svyatoye Dedovskoye were obtained.

As a result, almost all topics of the conference are represented in this special issue. The article by V.N. Sinyukovich from Limnological Institute of the SB RAS is devoted to hydrological problems, the high and low inflows into Lake Baikal and the flow of its main rivers are discusses. In the article by I.I. Marinaite et al. authors assessed a spatiotemporal pattern of pollutant distribution (PM₁₀, PAHs and GEM) in the air above the water area of Lake Baikal and estimated fluxes of pollutants onto the water surface of the lake.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the authors who provided the results of their research to this special issue, to all the reviewers of the papers and the editor of the journal, thanks to which the publication of the special issue of the conference “Limnology in Russia” became possible.

About the authors

T. V. Sapelko

Author for correspondence.
Email: tsapelko@mail.ru
Russian Federation, 9 Sevastyanova Str., St. Petersburg, 196105

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2. Fig.1. In the conference “Limnology in Russia”. Russian Geographical Society, St. Peterburg, 12.02.2024

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3. Fig.2. The geography of the research presented at the conference “Limnology in Russia”.

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