My Travel Blog 2--Oil Spill in Lake Baikal

Last week, there was a spill in an oil well at Lake Baikal. This event has drawn scientists' attention quickly around the world. Since Lake Baikal is the home of more than 1,550 species of animals, the damage on the ecosystem is alarmingly dangerous.

Scientists concluded that the immediate impacts of oil spill include causing birds to lose their buoyancy and the ability to regulate body temperature from the coated oil on their feather and causing mammals to have ulcers and internal bleeding from ingesting oil.

"Flying WILD Activity Teaches How Oil in Water Effects Birds"

"Flying WILD Activity Teaches How Oil in Water Effects Birds"

It is important to understand that oil is poisonous for animals. From ingestion, mammals may lose their ability to regulate their body temperatures, which would lead to mass number of deaths. For example, one particular organism that would be harmed by the oil spill is the freshwater seal--nerpa.

Photo Courtesy of Tatiana Baksheeva

Regulation of body temperature is vital to the survival of nerpa. Nerpa is an ectodermic species--one that can and needs to regulate its own body temperature to keep its body cells working and operate homeostasis. However, ingestion of oil can harm its nervous system and therefore stop homeostasis of in its body. Once nerpa cannot regulate its body temperature, when it is swimming in Lake Baikal, it will die in the freezing water.

On the other hand, some organisms might flourish in response to the oil spill. For example, epischura is one of the species that can benefit from the oil spill.

"Epischura baicalensis and other wriggly things"

As Peter Thomson states, Lake Baikal is capable of purifying it self from the help of epischura. "Baikal does, remarkably, cleanse itself. It's a complex process, but the cornerstone is the lake’s most plentiful creature — a tiny, endemic, filter-feeding copepod called Epischura baicalensis. Each Epischura is no bigger than a poppyseed, but there are zillions floating through Baikal, which together form an incredibly efficient filtration system. They suck tiny scraps of food out of the lake, and along with them any specks of pollution they encounter. It’s the Epischura that keep Baikal’s water so pure. They are, as one local environmental activist put it, “the heroes of the lake."

Thomson also comments on the process of epischura's work, "away from a few local near-shore hotspots, the extraordinary powers of the heroic Epischura have kept Baikal’s water free of virtually any sign of these insults. But while they make contaminants invisible to most observers, the Epischura don’t really make the pollution disappear. Instead, they merely transfer toxic compounds from the water into the food chain. And with each step along the chain, the pollutants are concentrated thousands of times: At the top, researchers have found Baikal seals with pollution loads rivaling those of seals in the heavily industrialized Baltic Sea. The contamination may be linked to chronic health problems and even to several mass die-offs of seals since the late 1980s. And the humans who live on or near Baikal eat many of the same fish as the seals do, so they may also be ingesting dangerous amounts of pollutants."

Therefore, according to Thomson, if there is an oil spill at Lake Baikal, the epischura are able to ingest the toxic oil and transfer the toxic to other animals such as seals. Since the seals are already suffering from ingestion of oil, this transfer of toxic oil will further devastate the species. Thus, the epischura's population will increase as a result of increasing demand on filtering the water.

Citations:

https://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Protect-Habitat/Gulf-Restoration/Oil-Spill/Effects-on-Wildlife.aspx
http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/how-oil-harms-animals-and-plants.html
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/russias_lake_baikal_preserving_a_natural_treasure/2005/