IMPACT ON THE ECOSYSTEM OF THE POLLUTED AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT OF LAKE BAIKAL: A SUBJECT FIELD REVIEW

Baikal is a huge ancient lake in the Siberian mountains north of the Mongolian border. This lake is considered the deepest lake in the world. Baikal is the richest lake on the planet in the species diversity of crustaceans. More than 3000 species of living creatures live in it, 80% of which live only here and nowhere else. Baikal is, finally, an amazing natural laboratory, in which new species of living beings are formed to this day. At the moment, this lake is under strong human influence from factories, "uncivilized" tourism, biodiversity threats, etc. In response to the rapidly increasing number of publications over 20 years, a subject field review was carried out to summarize the available literature on the negative human impact on Lake Baikal. This overview article compiled from 20 sources. The search was carried out in the electronic Scopus database from 2000 to 2021. A total of 785 articles were identified, 20 of which were selected based on predefined selection criteria, and included in this review. Most of those articles were research on the subject of pollution by heavy metals, mercury, accumulation of mercury in the organisms of animals of Lake Baikal, as well as the reduction of endemics in the natural environment of Lake Baikal, associated with human influence. To fully understand how strongly human influence can aggravate the natural catastrophe of Lake Baikal, it is necessary to conduct more in-depth and targeted studies in the centers of pollution of the natural environment of Lake Baikal but the overview under consideration can be used as a source of analytical information for those who are interested in the subject related to environmental protection.