The golomyankas are the main prey of the Baikal seal and represent the largest biomass of fish in the lake. In addition to Cottoidea members, there are few endemic fish species in the lake basin. The age and isolation of Lake Baikal make it quite unusual. As described by John Langdon Brooks in the Quarterly Biology Review, Lake Baikal has an “extremely high degree of endemism,” meaning hundreds of species are nowhere else on Earth. This concentration of unique species extends across the food web; While fish are for the most part uniqueness, there are hundreds of species of small invertebrates in the lake that are found nowhere else on Earth. And at the top of the food web is the Baikal Seal, the only seal species in the world that lives exclusively in fresh water.
In winter and spring, the surface freezes for about 4 to 5 months; From early January to early May-June, the surface of the lake is covered with ice. On average, ice reaches a thickness of 0.5 to 1.4 m (1.6–4.6 ft), but in some places with hills it can be more than 2 m (6.6 ft). During this period, the temperature slowly increases with the depth in the lake, cooler near the ice-covered surface to a rough freezing, to about 3.5-3.8 ° C (38.3-38.8 ° F) at a depth of 200-250 m (660–820 ft). After the surface ice has broken, the surface water is slowly heated by the sun and in May-June the top becomes 300m homothermic at about 4 ° C (39 ° F) due to the water mixture. The sun continues to heat the surface layer and at the peak of August it can reach up to about 16 ° C (61 ° F) in the main sections and 20–24 ° C (68–75 ° F) in shallow bays in the middle south of the Lake. During this time, the pattern is reversed compared to winter and spring, because the water temperature drops with increasing depth.
This lake contains about 19% of the world’s total frozen fresh water reserve. Like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal was formed in an old burst valley and therefore has a long and growing shape with an area (31,500 km²) of less than half that of Lake Superior or Lake Victoria. Baikal serves as the home of more than 1,700 plant and animal species, two thirds are found only in the lake area. UNESCO designated Lake Baikal as a World Heritage Site in 1996.
In a clear environmental victory, President Vladimir Putin has called for a new Siberian pipeline to be diverted far north from the lake basin, rather than less than a mile from the lake. Among dubai motor yacht charter (https://charterclick.com/dubai/motor_yacht) them is the cute nerpa seal, the only type of freshwater seal in the world. Its existence on the lake has confused scientists as it is no longer adjacent to the sea and is miles from the ocean.
At over 1,600 meters, it is the deepest lake in the world and perhaps more than 25 million years old, also the oldest. The Baikal lake water is so fresh that calcium carbonate does not survive in the fossil record. Despite the great depth of the lake, the water is well oxygenated and creates unique biological habitats. With 23,615.39 km3 of water, Lake Baikal is the world’s largest freshwater lake, with 23% of the world’s freshwater, more than all the Great Lakes of North America combined. It is the deepest lake in the world, with a maximum depth of 1,642 m, and the oldest lake in the world, 25-30 million years old. With 31,722 km2, slightly larger than Belgium, it is the seventh largest lake in the world in terms of area.