MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. Experts of the Russian Academy of Scientists’ Siberian Branch have a biotechnology solution to remove industrial contamination from Lake Pyasino near Norilsk, leader of the Great Norilsk Expedition’s hydrobiology team, Mikhail Gladyshev of the Biophysics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch said in an interview with TASS.
“Instead of useless stocking, we suggest restoring the water quality, which between the 1950s and the 1980s dropped below required limits for fishery reservoirs,” he said. “Nobody in the world has done anything of the kind. The Siberian Branch has a scientifically-based solution. Any fish population recovery there would be possible only after the water quality is restored.”
The international practice of restoring lakes lies in biology manipulations “from top to bottom” along the food chain, he explained. The US has used this method to restore water in the Great Lakes. Similar methods have been used in Western Europe. But on Taimyr, the process should be the opposite: “from bottom to top” along the food chain.
“Nobody in the world has done so in big water reservoirs. But the Siberian Branch is known for doing many things, which nobody else has practiced. I hope we shall be the first to make this large-scale biomanipulation to restore the lake’s condition, and only afterwards stocking could be done. I am confident - we can use such ecotechnologies to restore resources in the Arctic. However, this work requires public-private partnership, support from businesses and state authorities,” he said in conclusion.
Expedition to Taimyr
The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the first time in recent years, at the invitation of Nornickel, sent a big scientific expedition to the Taimyr Peninsula to conduct a large-scale examination of the area. Scientists will use the expedition’s results to present suggestions for industrial companies, working in the Arctic, on how to preserve the nature.
The expedition’s key points were watersheds of the Rivers Pyasina, Norilka and Ambarnaya and Lake Pyasino. The expedition’s term is five months – from July to November. Before the end of August, experts from 14 research institutes of the Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch collected samples of soils, plants and sediments and are now conducting tests at the institutes’ labs.