Significance: Lake Baikal (Siberia) is the world’s oldest and deepest lake and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Containing an exceptionally high level of biodiversity and endemism, in addition to a fifth of global freshwater not stored in ice sheets, the lake has been cited by UNESCO as the “most outstanding example of a freshwater ecosystem.” Using geochemical and climate data, we demonstrate that rates of nutrient supply to the lake’s photic zone have risen to unprecedented levels in the last 2,000 y through the 20th and 21st centuries. Linked to increases in wind speed enhancing deep ventilation, we show that these changes are capable of altering lake primary production and community dynamics, including the balance between endemic and cosmopolitan species.

The variations in the free surface of Lake Baikal at three stations (Bol’shie Koty, Listvyanka, and Baikal’sk) are measured. A modern recording method and an advanced technique of record processing are used. Based on 1-year-long observation data, the amplitudes of seiche oscillations and their seasonal changes are analyzed. It is found, in particular, that 67-min seiches are manifested in different seasons. Numerical calculations of seiches in Lake Baikal are made with the use of up-to-date bathymetric data on one-dimensional, plan, and spherical models. Spatial structures of oscillations with periods of 277, 152, 84, 67, and 59 min, corresponding to the well-expressed peaks of power spectral density, are studied. It is shown that the first four periods correspond to uninodal, binodal, trinodal, and quadrinodal longitudinal seiche modes of Lake Baikal. The periods of three solutions can correspond to the value of 59 min. The first of them is the seiche of the lake’s South Basin, and two others are characterized by significant amplitude growth in the Small Sea and Chivyrkui Bay.

Continuous monitoring of ice cover belongs to the key tasks of modern climate research, providing up-to-date information on climate change in cold regions. While a strong advance in ice monitoring worldwide has been provided by the recent development of remote sensing methods, quantification of seasonal ice cover is impossible without on-site autonomous measurements of the mass and heat budget. In the present study, we propose an autonomous monitoring system for continuous in situ measuring of vertical temperature distribution in the near-ice air, the ice strata and the under-ice water layer for several months with simultaneous records of solar radiation incoming at the lake surface and passing through the snow and ice covers as well as snow and ice thicknesses. The use of modern miniature analog and digital sensors made it possible to make a compact, energy efficient measurement system with high precision and spatial resolution and characterized by easy deployment and transportation. In particular, the high resolution of the ice thickness probe of 0.05 mm allows to resolve the fine-scale processes occurring in low-flow environments, such as freshwater lakes. Several systems were tested in numerous studies in Lake Baikal and demonstrated a high reliability in deriving the ice heat balance components during ice-covered periods.

This work presents the results of complex analysis of the field data and of mathematical modeling of the ice ring structure more than 4 km across, which was identified by the space images of South Baikal in April 2009. The measurements revealed that the ice thickness was 74 cm in the center of the structure, decreased to 43 cm at a distance of 2 km, and increased up to 70 cm and more beyond the ring. The ice water in the central part was warmer by 0.5°C and less saline (for 2 mg/kg) relative to the periphery of the structure. According to the tracer movements, the maximum velocities of the ice currents (3–4 cm/s) were observed at a distance of 2–3 km from the center of the structure with minimum ice thickness. The event was modeled using several mathematical models of various scales. The 3-D nonhydrostatic modeling of the large-scale processes on the basis of the temperature measured in the area of the structure showed the presence of local anticyclonic circulation, where the velocities of the currents increased up to the maximum (5–7 cm/s) at the distance of 2–3 km from the center and then decreased. The variations in the ice thickness in the area of the ring structure were modeled on the basis of these calculation results. The ice thicknesses determined in the context of the Stefan problem for the 2-D axis-symmetrical temperature distribution model are close to the measured ones. According to the model, the formation of the ring structure spans a period of 25–35 days. The origination of the dark ring on the satellite images is related to the lower ice thickness relative to the ambient areas and to the water level in microfractures closer to the ice surface.