Objective
Lake Baikal in east Siberia contains more than 20% of the available fresh water on Earth. It represents the world's largest (23,000 km3), deepest (1,630 m) and oldest (> 20 My) liquid fresh water body. The water of Lake Baikal is very clean and of perfect quality. It can be used as drinking water without treatment of any kind. In 1989 the European members of the World Health Organisation signed the European Charter on Environment and Health which identifies the restoration and protection of surface waters as a top-priority aim. This goal is of paramount importance for Lake Baikal as this lake simultaneously provides the economic base for the local population (3 million), represents a fresh water resource of global importance and is the home of a unique aquatic ecosystem with more than 1,000 endemic species. The importance and fragility of this lake system makes it urgent to study and understand the physical, chemical and trophic mechanisms determining its dynamics and to assess the relative role of natural versus anthropogenic changes occurring in the system.
Despite the great depth of Lake Baikal, oxygen is present throughout the entire water column, indicating rapid deep-water exchange. Tracer measurements demonstrate that up to 10% of the deep water is renewed annually, but as the exact mixing mechanisms are not fully understood, they are one of the great mysteries of Lake Baikal. At present, there exist several hypotheses for the deep-water formation (e.g. river inlets, hydrothermal activity, thermal baricity and cabling instability), but none of these has been proven. Despite the fact that these mixing processes transport heat into the deep water, the deep-water temperature remains constant over long periods of time. Thus heat transport into the deep water must be balanced by cold water input and indeed conductivity, temperature and depth measurements (CTD) do point to the occurrence of episodes of deep water cooling within periods of a few days in the northern part of the lake. Again, the cause of the deep water cooling is unknown. According to satellite data, however, it would appear to be related to the melting of the ice cover. Satellite data, combined with classical CTD work, potentially represent a unique tool for tracing large-scale thermal fronts.
The overall interpretation of the CTD measurements, satellite observations and theoretical work on the equation of state and water will lead to a better understanding of the density structure of fresh water under high-pressure conditions. In addition, this will show the relevance of the various mixing processes concerned, allowing quantitative estimates of the deep-water renewal driven by the individual mixing processes to be obtained. The long-term analysis of the T-3He system will provide a direct, quantitative measure of the deep-water formation rate in Lake Baikal. Since the isotope measurements will be conducted all over the lake during different seasons of the year, it will be able to identify dynamic differences in deep-water renewal in space and time, allowing large-scale water transport phenomena to be analysed within and between the lake basins.
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Programme(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Coordinator
8600 Dübendorf
Switzerland
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