Expedition on board the R/V “Titov” on June 17-28, 2023

On June 17-28, 2023 an expedition on board the R/V “Titov” was carried out. Sampling was conducted in the coastal zone and bays of the southern and central basins of Lake Baikal. Eight employees of the Laboratory of Genosystematics took part in the expedition.

Fieldworks were conducted within the State Assignment № 0279-2021-0010 “Genetics of communities of Baikal organisms: gene pool structure, conservation strategies” (led by D.Yu. Shcherbakov).

The expedition was aimed to conduct a research in the field of genomics, population and evolutionary biology of gastropods and bivalves, amphipods, chironomids, tardigrades and macrophytes of the littoral zone of Lake Baikal.

Water sampling was performed at 14 stations using scraper, bottom sampler, hydrobiological dredges and dip nets from the water edge to the depths of 30-40 meters. In total, more than 100 samples of invertebrates and macrophytes were collected and recorded.

Preliminary analysis showed that the samples contained: amphipods of the Baikal endemic genera Eulimnogammarus, Acanthogammarus, Brachyuropus, Crypturopus and others; Baikal endemic cheironomids of the genus Sergentia; endemic and palearctic species of bivalves and gastropods; different kinds of tardigrades; hydras of the species Hydra circumcincta and Hydra oligactis. Among macrophytes filamentous algae of the genera Ulothri, Draparnaldia and Spirogyra were abundant.

To study mitochondrial proteomes, samples of various species of Baikal amphipod crustaceans (Amphipoda) from different ecotopes of Lake Baikal were collected.