Light pollution affects the coastal zone of Lake Baikal

Abstract The role of light pollution in aquatic ecosystems functioning has increased in recent times. In addition, the effect of such pollution has mostly been studied in coastal marine ecosystems, leaving freshwater ecosystems much less studied. In the p resent work, we investigated the effect of light pollution on the coastal zone of the ancient Lake Baikal ecosystem. Both a laboratory experiment and field research were conducted. The results of the experiment showed the presence of statistically significant differences (р =0.009) between fish feeding on amphipods with and without daylight conditions, while there were no such differences between daylight and artificial light conditions. At the same time, video recordings revealed both a low number of specimens and a low species diversity of amphipods near to the village with a developed system of street lights, while in the village with a nearly nonexistent light system, the species diversity and a number of amphipods were much higher. One plausible explanation for such influence of light pollution on the quality and quantity of Baikal amphipod fauna might be the sum of several factors such as high water transparency and daily vertical migrations of amphipods.