World’s deepest lake under threat: Scientists
October 20th, 2017
Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake is undergoing its gravest crisis in recent history, according to experts. Holding one-fifth of the world’s unfrozen fresh water, the lake situated in Russia’s Siberia region is a natural wonder of exceptional value to evolutionary science. It is even listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The lake’s rich biodiversity includes over 3,600 plant and animal species, most of which are endemic to the lake. Since the past few years, the lake, which is a major international tourist attraction, has been crippled by a series of damaging phenomena such as disappearance of the omul fish, rapid growth of putrid algae and the death of endemic species of sponges across its vast 3.2 million-hectare area.