Lake Baikal : A Mirror in Time and Space for Understanding Global Change Processes

by Minoura, Koji

• ISBN13: 9780444504340
• ISBN10: 0444504346
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-01
• Publisher: Elsevier Science Ltd

Summary

Lake Baikal is the oldest lake and largest freshwater reservoir in the world. As a result of its exceptionally long geological history, the lake has been a theatre of evolution and speciation of organisms, and it currently harbors more species than any other lake in the world. Based on its unique nature, Lake Baikal was recently designated a World Heritage site and is regarded as a hotspot for evolution, speciation, and biodiversity. With its tremendously peculiar biota, Lake Baikal is now awaiting modern analytical approaches to the profound problems of speciation and evolution. In late autumn 1998 a symposium was held in Japan with the theme "Lake Baikal: A mirror in time and space for understanding global change processes" to bring together scientists from different disciplines who are studying Lake Baikal. Three international scientific associations: The BICER (Baikal International Center for Ecological Research), BDP (Baikal Drilling Project), and DIWPA (Diversitas Western Pacific and Asia) were involved in the organisation. This book contains a selection of papers presented at this symposium. They are interdisciplinary in nature and bring together results from geology, paleontology, chemistry, biology, limnology and physics.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Paleoenvironment and Rift Basin History

Baikal drilling project

Changes in the Lake Baikal levels and runoff direction in the Quaternary period

Paleomagnetic and rock-magnetic studies on Lake Baikal sediments: BDP 96 borehole at Academician Ridge

Paleoclimatic signals printed in Lake Baikal sediments

Glaciations of central Asia in the late Cenosoic according to the sedimentary record from Lake Baikal

Paleoclimatic changes from 3.6 to 2.2 derived from palynological studies on Lake Baikal sediments

TEM analysis of smectite-illite mixed-layer minerals of core BDP-96-1 - Preliminary results

Forest-desert alternation history revealed by pollen record in Lake Baikal over the past 5 million years

Vegetation history of the southeastern and eastern coasts of Lake Baikal from bog sediments since the last interstade

Estimation of paleoenvironmental changes in the Eurasion continental interior during the past 5 million years inferred from organic components in the BDP 96 Hole 1 sediment core from Lake Baikal

Paleoenvironmental change in the Eurasian continental interior inferred from chemical elements in sediment cores (BDP96/1, BDP96/2) from Lake Baikal

A new preparation method for qualitative and quantitative analyses of fossil sponge spicules by the light microscope

Evolution of fresh water centric diatoms within the Baikal rift zone during the late Cenozoic

Physicochemical Limnology

Elemental compositions of short sediment cores and ferromanganese concretions from Lake Baikal

Mercury distribution in bottom and stream sediments of the Baikal Lake, water reservoirs of the Angara river cascade, and the adjacent drainage basins

Correlation between geochemical features of recent bottom and stream sediments in the Baikal geoecological polygon

Remote sensing methods in studies of Lake Baikal environment

Environmental impact on the dynamics of Lake Baikal phytoplankton taxonomic groups: modeling attempts

Nonlinear stability near the temperature of maximum density and thermobaric instability in Lake Baikal during summer stratification

Study of the elemental compositions of suspended particles in large continental lakes (Baikal and Khubsugul)

Atmospheric and riverine input of nutrients and organic matter into Lake Baikal

Comparison of persistent organochlorine pollutant behavior in the food webs of Lake Baikal and Superior

(Carbon and nitrogen isotope studies of pelagic ecosystem and environmental fluctuations of Lake Baikal

Some speculations on the possibility of changes in deep-water renewal in Lake Baikal and their consequences

Contamination of the ecosystems of Lake Baikal by persistent organochlorines

Evolution and Biodiversity

Genetic differentiation of gammarid (Eulimnagammarus cyaneus) populations in relation to past environmental changes in Lake Baikal

Myological peculiarities of the comephoridae: an endemic fish taxon of Lake Baikal (Pisces: Teleostei)

Morphometric comparison of skulls of seals of the subgenus Pusa

The importance of habitat stability for the prevalence of sexual reproduction

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