Russian scientists have discovered a high concentration of microplastics in the snow and ice of Lake Baikal. Crustaceans-cleaners live near these accumulations. It turned out that the most synthetic particles are in the lower edge of the ice, where the larvae of the Epischura crustacean live. This is a key filter that maintains the purity of Lake Baikal.
Scientists from TSU have developed a method for isolating and counting microplastics from biological matrices, patented it, and applied it to samples.
Until recently, the study of microplastics in Baikal was fragmented. Mostly, water from the surface was studied in the summer, which gave an idea of only the "tip of the iceberg."
In the process, specialists found out that microplastics enter the lake's food chain — sticks to aquatic plants, after which it is accidentally ingested by gastropod mollusks and amphipod crustaceans. Epischura baikalensis crustaceans make up to 100% of the community under the ice cover.
The Irkutsk State University, which also worked on the study, explained that ice and snow act as giant pollution concentrators.
Snow collects plastic dust brought by the wind, and ice literally freezes particles from the water into itself. The highest concentration of MP particles is noted on the lower edge of the ice.
The Director of the Center for the Study of Microplastics in the Environment at TSU, Yulia Frank, added that Baikal is still clean compared to other large bodies of water in the world. In the Great Lakes of the USA, up to 100 thousand particles are found per cubic meter of water, in the lakes of Altai — up to 11 thousand, and in Lake Rewalsar (India) this figure reaches up to 130 thousand particles per cubic meter.
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