The worlds largest heliothermal lake newly formed in the Aral Sea basin
Izhitskiy A.S. Kirillin G.B. Goncharenko I.V. Kurbaniyazov A.K. Zavialov P.O.
November 2021IOP Publishing Ltd
Environmental Research Letters
2021#16Issue 11
The Aral Sea desiccation is one of the worst aquatic ecological disasters of the last century, important for understanding the worldwide trends to degradation of arid lakes under water use and climate change. Formerly the fourth largest lake worldwide, the Aral Sea has lost ∼90% of its water since the early 1960s due to irrigation in its drainage basin. Our survey on the seasonal thermal and mixing regime in Chernyshev - a semi-isolated hypersaline part of the Aral Sea - revealed a newly formed two-layered structure with strong gradients of salinity and water transparency at mid-depths. As a result, the Chernyshev effectively accumulates solar energy, creating a temperature maximum at the water depth of ∼5 m with temperatures up to 37 °C. Herewith, this part of the Aral Sea has evolved to an unprecedently large (∼80 km2) heliothermal lake akin to artificial solar ponds used for green energy production. The newly formed heliothermal lake, with transparent and freshened layer on top of the hypersaline and nutrient-rich deep water, acts as a solar energy trap and facilitates intense biogeochemical processes. The latter reveal themselves in practically 100% opacity of the deep layer to the solar light, permanent deep anoxia, and growing methane concentrations. The recent emergence of the Chernyshev as a heliothermal lake provides an opportunity for tracing the biogeochemical and ecological response of aquatic ecosystems to suddenly changed environmental conditions.
Aral Sea , green energy , heliothermal lake , limnology , meromictic lake , solar energy , vertical mixing
Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи
Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russian Federation
Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany
Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University, Turkestan, Kazakhstan
Shirshov Institute of Oceanology
Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026