Expedition onboard RV “G. Titov”, August 05-14, 2019
The expedition within the framework of the program “Microbial and Viral Communities in Biofilms of Freshwater Ecosystems: Taxonomic Diversity, Functioning and Biotechnological Potential” was carried out onboard RV “G. Titov”, August 05-14, 2019 in the littoral zone of Lake Baikal near the Listvyanka settlement, Varnachka valley, opposite the Bolshoye Goloustnoye settlement, near Aya Bay ant the Olkhonskiye Vorota Strait, as well as in bays of the Maloye More Strait, Chivyrkuy and Barguzin bays, near the Turka River, the Gremyachinsk town, the Novyi Enkhaluk and Posolsky Sor settlements, the Babushkin town, the Tankhoy settlement, the Vydrino, Baikalsk and Slyudyanka towns, and the Kultuk settlement.
The aim of the expedition was:
- to characterize the functional activity of cultured and uncultured microbial communities from biofilms of solid substrates and surface microlayer of Lake Baikal;
- to assess the quality of the Baikal waters by hygiene indicator microorganisms.
The planned fieldworks were completely fulfilled. From five stations, 56 water samples, 15 neuston samples and 25 samples of epilithic biofilms were taken to determine chemical indicators, a total number of bacteria, chlorophyll, cultured groups of microorganisms (over 3 thousand of inoculations) as well as for molecular genetic studies of bacterial communities. From 30 stations, 154 water samples and 6 sand samples were taken to record hygiene indicator microorganisms; 1275 inoculations were made. For the subsequent determination of cyanobacterial toxin variants in the Baikal phytoplankton, 16 net samples were taken. The researcher from Institute of General and Experimental Biology SB RAS took part in the expedition as a part of the collaboration and sampled the material for chemical analysis of biofilm matrix.
