Russian scientists are developing an eco-technology for the accelerated restoration of Arctic lakes. This was announced by a hydrobiologist, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Gladyshev.
According to him, we are talking about a method of restoration through the introduction of natural fertilizers into the lake water - the waste products of birds.
This contributes to an increase in the productivity of the aquatic ecosystem.
“We are developing a method in the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, we called it guanotrophication. It is famous in Europe. And Russian scientists from our Institute of Biology of Inland Waters are actually leaders in this area,” Gladyshev said at a press conference at TASS.
Scientists have recently tested this technique in the Arctic.
According to him, this year the expedition to develop this technology has successfully ended.
The Project Office for the Development of the Arctic (PORA), which organized the expedition, provided its details on its website. The study was conducted this summer on the Taimyr Peninsula in the Pyasina River basin. The expedition included experts from the Institute of Biophysics of the Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences", the Siberian Federal University and the A.N. Severtsov RAS.
The scientists have studied 13 lakes inhabited by anseriform birds (geese and swans) and 8 lakes without birds. According to the tested hypothesis, guanotrophication, that is, the application of natural fertilizer obtained from wild birds, should contribute to the restoration of water quality in Arctic reservoirs and increase their biological productivity.
“As the scientists found out, in the lakes inhabited by birds, the organic matter (seston) actually contained much more phosphorus, which serves as a nutrient for microalgae. At the same time, in the plankton of lakes inhabited by birds, the main share was precisely beneficial, while potentially water-bearing cyanobacteria dominated in lakes without birds," PORA notes. Thus, it was confirmed that guanotrophication is an environmentally acceptable method for increasing the productivity of aquatic biological resources, since it increases the share of useful microalgae - phytoplankton, which is food for organisms that make up the food base of valuable Arctic fish species.
“In contrast to this method, anthropogenic eutrophication, which occurs due to an excess of mineral fertilizers in the water, causes a harmful “bloom” of cyanobacteria, which negatively affects the entire food chain of valuable fish species,” the project office said in a statement. In particular, we are talking about the restoration of those lakes that have been subjected to industrial pollution for decades.
According to Gladyshev, increasing the productivity of aquatic biological resources in the Arctic will expand the list of water bodies where indigenous peoples of the North can fish.
