Lake Taimyr

The second largest lake in the Trans-Ural part of Russia is located in a region where not a single person can be found for many square kilometers. The Taimyr Peninsula. The northernmost part of the land of our continent and the most poorly studied region. It is here, beyond the Arctic Circle, that the freshwater lake is located, it is the namesake of the peninsula.

The area ranges from 1,200 to 4,560 km2, depending on the time of year. Due to the harsh climate, the lake becomes very shallow in winter and is filled during the summer melting of snow and ice.
The length reaches 160 km.
The width is up to 90 km (in different sources up to 23 km, depending on the water level).
The maximum depth is 26 m.
The average depth is 2.8 m.
The volume of water is 12.8 km3

Once the lake was fed by the waters of the Arctic Ocean through the Lower Taimyr River, which now connects the lake with the Kara Sea. During certain geological periods, the ocean level rose, which contributed to the settlement of the lake by marine life. Now the water in it is fresh. Representatives of the Baikal fauna are found here. This duality makes Lake Taimyr a unique natural site, valuable for exploring.

However, it can be difficult for scientists to wait for suitable conditions. Like everything else in the tundra, Taimyr only comes to life for a couple of months a year. Most of the time, the lake is frozen, and life lurks somewhere in the depths of the reservoir. Winters on the lake are harsh. They are accompanied by winds that do not allow the snow cap to linger on the surface of the ice. A quarter of the lake's permanent water area freezes to the very bottom every winter. Only deep places remain habitable (with an average depth of about three meters, there are drops of up to 26 in the lake).

It is only from July to mid-September that the ice crust briefly disappears from the surface of Taimyr, and the water warms up to about +8 °C. This fertile period for the inhabitants of the lake and the coastal zone lasts no more than 70 days. During this time, the mirror level of the reservoir can rise by several meters, and such fluctuations occur rapidly. The culprits of the rising water are congestion in the Lower Taimyr. Ice slabs two meters thick, covered with multiple cracks, rush downstream to the Kara Sea. This sight is amazing in its scale and is accompanied by loud noise and crackling. In two and a half months, the lake will become much smaller (its area may be reduced to 1,200 square kilometers), and the flora and fauna will prepare for another wintering.

The flora and fauna of the reservoir are quite rich, and most importantly, they have been preserved almost in their original form. Valuable salmon family fish are found in the lake: muksun, char and whitefish, as well as burbot, grayling and omul. Arctic lake char, for example, often does not even go beyond the reservoir. Spawning and maturation of young individuals occur immediately. The fat-rich, nutritious fish become prey to a variety of birds living on the lake shores.

Geese and red-throated geese nest in the vicinity of Taimyr. The latter are considered a vulnerable species and are protected by the Russian Red List, and hunting is prohibited. However, the huge polar lake is a fairly safe place for birds, it is located on the territory of the Taimyr Nature Reserve, one of the largest in the country.

Unfortunately, the inaccessible latitudes and the protection of the state do not deprive Lake Taimyr of environmental problems. The real disaster was the extraction of gravel and sand, as well as the constant leaching of rocks from the old Birranga ridge, located north of the reservoir. The suspension that forms in the water reduces its transparency and interferes with many inhabitants of the reservoir and, first of all, all salmon fish.

The harsh beauty of Taimyr attracts tourists to its shores. However, there are few of our compatriots among the visitors of the Taimyr Reserve now. VIP tours and helicopter photo hunting are available to a small segment of Russians, there are significantly more foreigners here. The government is considering Lake Taimyr and the surrounding areas (in particular, the picturesque Putorana Plateau) as a promising area for the development of mass ecological tourism. The main thing is that with the increase in the number of tundra visitors, the anthropogenic load on the world's northernmost freshwater lake should not increase.