The expedition onboard the RV “G.Titov” from June 13 to 21, 2020

The expedition within the framework of the programs “Comprehensive Study of Evolutionary Processes in Benthic Organisms under Abrupt Changes in the Ecosystem of Lake Baikal” and “Experimental Studies of Genomes and Proteomes of the Biota in Freshwater Ecosystems” was carried out onboard the RV “G.Titov” from June 13 to 21, 2020.

The aim of the expedition was to collect cosmopolitan and endemic hydrobionts for morphometric and population genetic studies as well as to sample pelagic algo-bacterial communities a part of research on the monitoring of the ecosystem of Lake Baikal using metabarcoding methods.

The material was collected with scrapers and nets, a hydrobiological dredge, a bottom sampler, and a Niskin bathometer. In total, 31 coastal samples of zoobenthos and phytobenthos were collected from the water edge to a depth of 1 m, 12 littoral samples of zoobenthos and phytobenthos – at depths from 5 to 25, and 2 pelagic water samples – from the photic layer (depth from 0 to 25 m) to study algo-bacterial communities.

In the future, using modern methods of analysis and new generation sequencing technology, it is planned to study the formation history of the population structures of some invertebrate species.