Lake Issyk-Kul: Its Natural Environment

Lake Issyk-Kul is a closed lake located in the Tien Shan mountain belt of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. It is the world's fifth deepest lake (668 m) and the second largest high altitude lake in the world (1607 m above sea level). The lake is affected by several environmental threats of both anthropogenic and natural origin: decline of the lake level resulting in progressively increasing salinity, incomplete vertical water exchange, and risk of contamination by past and present industrial activity.
Although the lake has been intensively studied, the information is only available in unpublished reports or local scientific journals. This book presents for the first time to an international audience the main physical, chemical, biological and geological characteristics of the lake, the fruits of many years of observations, complemented by recent results of international projects. Case studies of similar problems in other parts of the world are presented, together with ethical aspects of the environmental protection of the lake.

I. Physical and chemical characteristics. - Climate and physical properties of water in Lake Issyk-Kul. - Water chemistry and ecology of Lake Issyk-Kul. - Hydrobiology of Lake Issyk-Kul. - Water level variations and water balance of Lake Issyk-Kul. - Hydromineral resources of the Issyk-Kul region. - Groundwater in the Issyk-Kul region. - Currents and vertical water exchange in Lake Issyk-Kul. - Using transient conservative and environmental tracers to study water exchange in Lake Issyk-Kul. - Bathymetry and sedimentary environments of Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyz Republic (Central Asia): a large, high-altitude, tectonic lake. - Recent paleoenvironmental evolution of Lake Issyk-Kul. - Active tectonics and seismic hazard of the Issyk-Kul basin in the Kyrgyz Tian-Shan. - The environmental risk resulting from gold mining. - II. Case studies in other regions. - Hydrochemistry of lakes in Tajikistan. - Zoobenthos and Zooplankton of the northern Aral Sea and possible ways of the sea ecosystem rehabilitation. - Evaluation of the damage to environmental state of the north-western Black Sea shelf ecosystems. - Does biomanipulation work for warm-temperate lakes? First case study in an eutrophic Turkish lake. - Computed mean monthly water balance of a larger lake: The case of Lake Tanganyika. - Radon studies for investigation of nuclear waste deposits and natural emissions. - III. Social and ethical aspects. - Philosophy of ecological ethics education, considering the Issyk-Kul lake remediation mechanisms. - Ecosystem management, environmental values and Lake Issyk-Kul. - List of Contributors.