Large Russian Lakes Ladoga, Onega, and Imandra under Strong Pollution and in the Period of Revitalization: A Review

Abstract

In this paper, retrospective analyses of long-term changes in the aquatic ecosystem of Ladoga, Onega, and Imandra lakes, situated within North-West Russia, are presented. At the beginning of the last century, the lakes were oligotrophic, freshwater and similar in origin in terms of the chemical composition of waters and aquatic fauna. Three stages were identified in this study: reference condition, intensive pollution and degradation, and decreasing pollution and revitalization. Similar changes in polluted bays were detected, for which a significant decrease in their oligotrophic nature, the dominance of eurybiont species, their biodiversity under toxic substances and nutrients, were noted. The lakes have been recolonized by northern species following pollution reduction over the past 20 years. There have been replacements in dominant complexes, an increase in the biodiversity of communities, with the emergence of more southern forms of introduced species. The path of ecosystem transformation during and after the anthropogenic stress compares with the regularities of ecosystem successions: from the natural state through the developmental stage to a more stable mature modification, with significantly different natural characteristics. A peculiarity of the newly formed ecosystems is the change in structure and the higher productivity of biological communities, explained by the stability of the newly formed biogeochemical nutrient cycles, as well as climate warming.

Assessing the Trend of the Trophic State of Lake Ladoga Based on Multi-Year (1997–2019) CMEMS GlobColour-Merged CHL-OC5 Satellite Observations

“…A similar trend of water pollution has been reported at the pulp and paper mills located at the shores of Lakes Onega and Imandra [44][45][46]. Both of these locations (Kondopoga Bay and Imandra Bolshaya Bay), have seen increased nutrient loads, other toxic chemicals and degraded water quality [45]. However, in comparison to Ladoga, Onega and Imandra, are considerably cleaner (Figures 3-7).…”

Ultrasensitive and multiplex SERS determination of anthropogenic phenols in oil fuel and environmental samples

“…From 1955, Lake Imandra has received wastewater from a mechanical plant containing copper, zinc, suspended solids, phenols, and oil products in addition to domestic wastewater. 52,53 Recently, the stage of intensive pollution and degradation has been replaced with decreasing pollution and revitalization. We used the method of standard addition where we added the standard directly to the aliquots of the analyzed environmental sample.…”

Surface Water under Growing Anthropogenic Loads: from Global Loads to Regional Consequences: A Review

“…This phenomenon can lead to the death of the northern benthic fauna, which is demanding on oxygen. In areas where basins in the Arctic are affected by eutrophication, the role of green, cryptophyte, and cyanobacteriae in the total phytoplankton biomass increases [10].…”

“…The northeastern part of the Scandinavia shield (northern Kola Peninsula) has been impacted by anthropogenic loads for more than eight decades, and the local waters are susceptible to all anthropogenic loads because of the sluggish material and energy exchange in the cold latitudes. Below we employ this region is as an illustrative example to discuss, based on results of our long-term studies in the area [4][5][6][7][8][9][10], how anthropogenic induced processes evolve in the surface waters. In natural environments, the waters of the region are low total dissolve salt (TDS) and are poor in biogenic elements (nutrients).…”