Why does the earth need swamps? Shouldn't we go to the swamp? Why lakes turn into swamps

Not everyone remembers that it is forbidden to pick cranberries in the reserve, otherwise rare species we'll trample down the plants

To the Lammin-Suo swamp, located in the Vyborg region Leningrad region, citizens are walking, although large billboards have been installed long before the entrance, informing them that this is a nature reserve and nothing can be collected. The VP correspondent also went to this swamp, but not for cranberries, but to talk with those who work here and protect nature. The Zelenogorsk field experimental base of the State Hydrological Institute is located in the reserve.

“Lammin-Suo Swamp” is a regional hydrological (swamp) reserve located in the Vyborg district of the Leningrad region. Area - 380 hectares. Has three lakes. Rare species of liver and sphagnum mosses are found on the territory of the reserve. There are more than 60 species of bryophytes alone in the swamp. The swamp is a stopover site for birds on migration. About 60 species of birds live permanently in the swamp.

Wonderful miracle - lake swamp

The regional hydrological reserve "Lammin-Suo Swamp", organized in 1976 and occupying an area of ​​380 hectares, is located away from the highway, in the forest. The name translates from Finnish as “lake swamp”. And this is true: the swamp (about 2 kilometers long and a kilometer wide) has three most beautiful lakes. The lakes are located along the edges of the swamp. Two of them (they are called Two Sisters) are connected by a narrow isthmus. The third, smallest, popularly called Kopeika, is at a distance. The reserve is the swamp itself with its lakes, plus the surrounding spruce forests and pine forests.

Amazing Two sisters - with pure water(visibility to quite a great depth). And the main attraction is the floating islands different sizes, but all are small. The islands are covered with mosses, bushes, and some even have very young trees. Over time, such islands should wash ashore and connect with it.

Once upon a time there was a lake in the basin, now occupied by a swamp. Gradually it turned into a swamp, which then began to overgrow.

— Back in the 60s of the last century, the swamp was clearly visible. Now, you see, the forest is slowly forming, becoming denser every year. The process of soil mineralization is underway,” explains Natalia Mikhailovna Selyanskaya, head experimental base, who has worked here for 27 years.

- So, someday there will be a real forest here instead of a swamp?
- It will be, but not very soon. The lake turned into a swamp in 7 thousand years. Now it's time to turn into a forest. But in our time, such processes are happening much faster than before, and this is due to anthropogenic factors.

— Is it bad that there will be a forest instead of a lake? Does this mean there will be fewer and fewer swamps?
— If you look at it globally, this is neither good nor bad. Man cannot cancel the water cycle in nature. Yes, some swamps will turn into forests, but on the other hand, some current lakes will eventually become swamps.

There is no escape from savage people

The reserve cannot escape the rapid human activity. In the forest surrounding it, one can increasingly find a classic landfill: garbage is transported into the forest by dump trucks. (So ​​the reserve’s employees sometimes have to clean up these “nobody’s” landfills as well.) The barriers blocking the entry of vehicles are periodically broken. About what citizens collect on protected area mushrooms and berries, and needless to say. It happens that they hunt on the edge of the reserve.

- Let's go and explain. Some people understand, some don't. Sometimes they are downright rude to us. And once, vacationers unleashed a shepherd dog on me,” says Natalia Mikhailovna.

The cranberry harvest period is the worst time for the reserve. We do not have armed guards, and our few employees are physically unable to be at every point in the swamp 24 hours a day. The paths along the roads have already been trodden by irresponsible citizens (and the employees, in order to save nature, walk only on special wooden walkways).

“It’s not the cranberries that I feel sorry for—the unique vegetation is being trampled down.” Mosses, lichens. Look, what a beauty this sundew is, a rarity,” Natalia Mikhailovna shows the characteristic stems of this insectivorous plant, hidden among the marsh mosses. “It’s not for nothing that the rules clearly say that you can only walk through the swamp during the snowy period.” That is, when all vegetation is protected by snow.

“And people aren’t afraid that the quagmire will suck in?”
“They’ve been walking for many years and know that our swamp is quite safe.” There are three types of swamps: highland, lowland and transitional. Liza Brichkina from the story “And the dawns here are quiet...” drowned in a low-lying swamp. We have a raised swamp, and only a small part of it is transitional. It can really suck there.

The swimmers also cause great damage to the reserve. Although there is a special place for swimming and bridges have been made on the larger of the Two Sisters lakes, people try to go around the lake from the other side, that is, through the swamp. Or penetrate through the swamp into a smaller one, although it is drinkable. That is, the reserve’s employees take water from it for domestic needs.

“The worst thing is that the floating islands are being trampled.” They jump from them into the water. And there the vegetation is very vulnerable: you walk through it once and it will take five years for it to recover. We say: “Do you really want these wonderful green islands to turn into peat, a dark peaty, unaesthetic mass floating on the water? But it will be unpleasant for you to swim!” Look at this island: just recently there was a small pine tree and a birch tree on it. Now only the birch tree remains, and it is barely alive. Trampled! - Natalia Selyanskaya complains. “And recently I saw three young people trying to tear off a large piece of turf from the shore. Apparently they wanted to make another floating island. Okay, I was there at that moment. I immediately made a remark. It seems like they understood.

- Probably there is no escape from the fishermen? - I ask.

But, as Selyanskaya explained, there are no problems with the fishermen. There are no fishermen. Because in these lakes... there are no fish. The water is highly acidic, stagnant, and fish do not settle in it. In the 60s of the last century they tried to breed crucian carp here. They brought in a batch, but to no avail. Didn't survive. But you can use such water as drinking water; the tea will be tasty, with a slight sourness.

“And we are also very afraid that a recreational zone with a tourist parking lot will be created on the territory of the reserve. First there will be tourists, and then, you see, cottages will appear. We can only hope that the reserve will not turn into a vacation spot for the elite,” says Natalia Selyanskaya.

The staff of the reserve not only protect nature in general, but also rescue abandoned animals - they recently rescued and rehomed a dozen puppies, a box with which was left on the road.

Snakes don't scare anyone, foxes don't scare anyone

Natalia Selyanskaya and I walk deep into the swamp along wooden walkways. In the 80s they walked through the entire swamp. But over time, they began to rot, and the money allocated by the state is only enough to repair the part closest to the experimental base. So employees have to climb the remains of the walkways to make the necessary observations at the points. And there are more than fifty observation points in the swamp.

To the right of the walkway there are battered and rickety instruments.

“They once followed the sun here.” Now there is neither equipment nor employees for this,” explains Natalia Mikhailovna. — Our equipment is generally bad. Everything is old. When scientists from other stations come to us, they are surprised: “Oh, what an antiquity! We studied with such devices at the institute!” And our employees are paid... “giant salaries” - 5 thousand rubles. Only on enthusiasm and love for nature, for this wonderful place everything is holding together. Alexandra Alexandrovna Lee, our oldest employee, she is already 75 years old, not only conducts observations, but also, if necessary, breaks the ice and leaves the snow.

Right there, in the swamp, among the hummocks, there is a meteorological site. There are also unusual devices here. For example, two instruments used to study the effect of rain on a swamp. One (with a recorder) records how much precipitation fell and at what time. Another (also with a recorder) is how much the level of the swamp increased during the rains. The swamp, one might say, breathes. There is no precipitation - exhale, the level decreases. It's raining - inhale, the level is rising.

But to the author of these lines, the most interesting devices seemed to be depth thermometers. They are installed in a row at different depths. Natalia Selyanskaya takes them out one by one and looks at the indicators. The temperature is different at different layers: the deeper, the colder.

Using various instruments, specialists monitor how the swamp lives, how moisture evaporates from its surface, how the level fluctuates depending on various factors, what happens to the peat layer, and so on. All this data is needed not only to know what is happening with nature, but also for purely practical things. After all, roads are laid through swamps, communications and gas pipelines stretch. And we need to calculate what might happen, which sections of highways will require additional strengthening. Moreover, information on swamps located in other regions is not suitable for our region. Because the natural conditions are different. However, there are only a few swamp reserves left in Russia. So in this regard, Lammin-Suo is unique.

The small team at the reserve hopes that positive changes will soon occur. Next year they promise money for the reconstruction of the experimental base. And this year, perhaps, the much-needed mercury glass meteorological thermometers will finally appear. Three of these were promised, each costing 3.5 thousand rubles. Now the Hydrological Institute is preparing a monograph on the Lammin-Suo swamp, which will summarize the history of its observations (since the 50s of the last century).

- Natalia Mikhailovna, is it scary here in winter? Bears, wolves coming? This is a fairly populated corner of the Karelian Isthmus only in summer.

— There are no bears here. But in the spring you can meet a wolf. And so the foxes look in. If there are no dogs nearby, they can eat from dog bowls. Unfortunately, foxes can even drag away a cat. We have had such sad cases.

While we were walking along the walkway, I saw snakes in the swamp—two vipers were basking in the sun.

— Maybe we should put up notices: “Beware of snakes!”, then people won’t come? — I propose to Natalia Mikhailovna.

“They’ve already hanged me,” Natalia Mikhailovna waves her hand. - They're still coming.

I ask about the most memorable event at Lammin Suo.

— When a flock of swans stops for the night on the lake. Early in the morning you go out and the whole lake is covered in white swans. And when the sun rises they fly away. A fabulous sight. But this happens once every few years.

An international group of scientists is again appealing to senior officials to help reduce phosphorus and nitrogen emissions. The latter, as it turned out, stimulate coastal waters.

In the February issue of the journal Science, researchers argue that reducing emissions of these particular substances will have a double effect, since phosphorus and nitrogen enter into complex interactions in aquatic ecosystems.

“If the program's ultimate goal is to restore ecosystem balance, scientists say progress toward it will be doubled as a result of focusing efforts on removing nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater from water bodies,” said study co-author Dr. Donald Bech of the Center for Environmental Protection. environmental protection from the University of Maryland. “If you deal with only one substance, the results will also appear, but much more slowly.”

Daniel Conley of Lund University in Sweden, also a co-author of the study, added that policymakers must take a unified approach to tackling pollution. “In any wetland, either nitrogen or phosphorus compounds can most often be found, depending on the time of year or location, and therefore it is important to solve the problem at the root.”

Excess chemical compounds in water often lead to its bloom, and all because algae begin to actively multiply in the reservoir, and the ecosystem does not receive enough oxygen. Scientists are confident that this is due to the increased level of pollutant discharges. Wastewater and the use of chemical fertilizers, the breakdown of which active substances end up in the same bodies of groundwater.

The paper, Controlling Eutrophication: Nitrogen and Phosphorus, was presented at the Science Forum on February 20. Its authors are Drs. Daniel Conley, Hans Perl, Robert Howard, Donald Bech, Sybil Seitzinger, Carl Heavens, Christian Lancelot and Jen Likens.

The University of Maryland Center for the Environmental Science (UMCES) is Maryland's premier environmental and ecosystem research institution. The center's employees help society understand and reassess the importance of a healthy ecology for an entire region.

Translation: Georgy Belykh

Residents of the village of Khimikov have been seeing a depressing picture for several years now: Lake Gubische is drying up and overgrown literally before our eyes, rapidly turning into a swamp. Has this process become irreversible? Or can the lake still be saved?

No projects

The problem has been known for decades. More than one newspaper article has been written on this topic. But so far, city officials - neither past nor present - have done virtually nothing to help the lake survive. By and large, no one really even knows why it dies. They talk about natural processes. But we see that over the past 2-3 years the lake (it’s somehow inappropriate to call it a lake, rather, it’s already a swamp) has begun to dry up rapidly. Why? What is the reason?

So far, self-government is not even trying to figure this out. But there is a university in the city; it employs scientists who are competent in these matters. In the city development department, its head, Inga Goldberg, stated with disappointment that, alas, there is currently not a single project to revive the lake. Yes, she agrees, research needs to be done, and a project on this topic is quite possible. However, in a later conversation with her deputy Inna Kukare, it turns out that the local government, in principle, cannot deal with projects related to the environment, because such projects are exclusively dealt with by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The local government should also pay attention to the lake because, when it dries up, it spreads the stench of rotting algae around.
Maybe some work is planned at the city executive level? Arvid Kutsins was not pleased with anything: “No, we don’t have any projects yet. But we are just planning to introduce fish into the lake - silver carp. It feeds on algae, and perhaps with these measures it will be possible to slow down its growth.”

Once upon a time there was a lot of talk about deepening the bottom of the reservoir - huge reserves of sapropel had accumulated there. But who will take on this matter?

City or private company? The city will hardly have the money for this, and the private owner must have a guarantee of profit. In addition, the quality of sapropel is also unknown. Once upon a time, tannery waste was dumped into Gubische, and it contains salts of heavy metals. But this requires separate research. Let's give the floor to the experts.

Experts' opinion

Arthur Shkute, professor, doctor biological sciences, director of the Institute of Ecology of Daugavpils University: “If we use geological calculations, then our lakes are a temporary formation. They appeared as a result of the melting of glaciers 10-14 thousand years ago. Overgrowing of lakes and turning them into swamps is a natural process. However, it can accelerate with human intervention. This is most likely what happened with Lake Gubische. At one time, industrial wastewater was poured into it. Then, with the construction of the village of Khimikov, the natural cover of the coastal zone disappeared, and soil erosion began. The human factor has been noticeable especially in the last 50-60 years .

What can be done? Cleaning up a lake is an expensive undertaking. When we deepen the bottom by 1 meter on an area of ​​1 hectare, we will get 10 thousand cubic meters of silt. Where should I put it? Firstly, you will need a large area to dry it. As a result of cleaning the lake, almost all of its flora and fauna will die. That is, this is an expensive undertaking with dubious results. True, after some time everything can be restored. And the fact that the lake became so shallow even in such a cool summer indicates that the groundwater level has dropped significantly. The decrease in level may be associated with the increasing consumption of water from artesian wells and the increase in the number of such wells. But it would answer many questions Scientific research on this topic, including monitoring groundwater levels in the city."

Inese Bezhane, ecologist of the municipal department of the City Duma: “The geomorphological situation on the lake has clearly changed. Most likely, the recharge of the reservoir from groundwater was disrupted. Perhaps the keys were covered with silt. A lot of phosphorus and other substances that enhance algae growth get into the water. This is due to the application of fertilizers to gardens in private homes. Monitoring of water quality in Gubische says that it is suitable for swimming. Three years ago, during a study of the lake, two species of protected algae were even discovered in it, which grow only in clean water. The reason for the drop in the water level in the lake may be due to the low amount of precipitation over the past year. last years. The winters have become warm.”

Something needs to be done

A swamp forms almost in the center of the city. Does the city need such “beauty”? Many residents have already given up on Gubische, believing that its thickets are the most suitable place for a dump household waste. What kind of rubbish you won’t find on its banks! But everything could have been different if the lake had been taken care of in time. Who knows - maybe now is not too late? But if you do nothing, you will have to come to terms with the appearance of a new “attraction” in the city in the form of a swamp.

Throughout their existence, reservoirs undergo complex changes - not only external, but also internal. By analogy with living organisms, researchers distinguish periods of youth, maturity, old age and decline in their lives. At a young age, lakes have a maximum depth, since bottom sediments have not yet accumulated. The bottom is uneven, the banks are steep, there is no coastal sandbank, the depths begin at the very shore. In the coastal zone there are only rare thickets of aerial-aquatic plants. The water is blue or greenish in color, indicating its high transparency.

There are no similar lakes in the Pskov region now, excluding artificial reservoirs: reservoirs on rivers, reservoirs at quarry sites and peat workings. IN mature age Mineral and organic sediments accumulate at the bottom of lakes, covering small irregularities in the bottom. Under the influence of waves, the shores become flat, shallows are formed, and the depths gradually increase. In the coastal part, zones of air-water floating and underwater plants are well defined. The color of the water varies from green to light yellow. The abundance of microscopic algae reduces its transparency.

This period is experienced by the deep and medium-deep water reservoirs of the Sudom and Bezhanitskaya uplands, the Velikoluksko-Sebezh ridge-hilly marginal zone. These include the largest lakes in the region: Pskovsko-Chudskoye, Zhizhitskoye, Sebezhskoye, Bolshoi Ivan.

Reservoirs that have reached the stage of old age are characterized by shallow water. Their basins are filled with a large thickness of lake sediments. The bottom and banks are flat and swampy. Aquatic vegetation occupies most or all of the lake area. The water has a brownish tint. Such reservoirs are very typical for the Pskov and Priilmen lowlands: Dubetc, Dulovo, Velye (Pushkinogorsky district). The final stage of development of reservoirs is extinction, when they become overgrown and turn into swamps. A striking example is Lake Chado in the Pushkinogorsk region, which has practically turned into a low-lying swamp.

Research shows that many of the swamps in the Pskov region were formed on the site of lakes. Overgrown reservoirs are quite common. Among them there are also relatively large ones, for example, Lake Chkrnoye (Vyazkovskoye) in the Strugo-Krasnensky district, with an area of ​​​​about 10 km2.

Overgrowing of lakes can also occur through the formation of rafting on the shores - a kind of plant carpet of grass and moss, on which sedges settle, strengthening it. With a thickness of 0.5-1 m, the alloy can withstand the weight of a person. When you walk along a raft, it bends, and it seems that you are about to fall through. People call it a ripple.

As the raft grows, it covers the entire lake with a continuous plant carpet, and it ends up buried. In 1962, in the Sebezh region, not far from Idritsa, an excavator fell to a depth of 18 m in such a swamp. Here, under a four-meter thickness of peat, there was a buried lake. However, lakes become swamped in this way much less often than through shallowing. Compared to deep tectonic reservoirs that arose in faults earth's crust and millions of years old (Ladoga, Baikal, Issyk-Kul), our lakes, due to their shallowness, are short-lived formations. Their lifespan is estimated at several thousand, at best - the first ten thousand years.

Currently, scientists using spore-pollen and radiocarbon methods determine the age of swamps and the time of swamping of lakes. It turned out that the Polistovsky swamps formed mainly on the site of lakes 7-10 thousand years and 3700-7000 years ago. The Nikandrovskoe swamp in the Porkhovsky region is about 4 thousand years old, and the small swamps of the Strugo-Krasnensky region - Kripichenetsk moss and Leymana - arose on the site of lakes 7000-8700 years ago.

Shallowing and swamping of water bodies occurs due to a number of reasons: the drainage of lakes by rivers, the accumulation of lake sediments, and climate fluctuations.

Most of our lakes are the headwaters of rivers. Thus, the Velikaya flows from Lake Malyy Vyaz, the Lovat from Lake Lovatets, the Plyussa from Lake Zaplusskoye. Many rivers flow through lakes and form lake-river systems. The Velikaya in its upper reaches flows through 21 lakes; Usha - through Ascho, Rebelskoye, Usha, Isso; Nevedryanka - via Nevedro, Paleevo, Sutokskoye, Mogilnoye.

The water flow of the river, deepening its channel, gradually lowers the level of the reservoir. In this case, the shallow lake may be completely drained. In the valleys of our rivers one can often observe expanded areas that arose on the site of the basins of drained lakes.

Judging by the structure of river valleys flowing from lakes, it can be assumed that the river network in post-glacial times lowered their level by 1-3 m. Consequently, the main reason for the massive swamping of reservoirs at the beginning of post-glacial times in the territory of the Valdai glaciation, including the Pskov region , the drainage of lakes should be considered rivers.

The accumulation of bottom sediments plays a significant role in waterlogging of water bodies. From the first days of life in the lakes there has been a continuous accumulation of them. Mineral and organic substances come from watersheds; when the banks are destroyed, chemical and organic sediments fall from the lake waters themselves. On average, a layer 1-2 mm thick is deposited in a reservoir per year. Over a thousand years, therefore, a layer of 1-2 m is formed. With intensive agricultural development of the lake catchment area, the rate of sediment accumulation can increase 2-3 times. The rate of accumulation and material composition of lake sediments depend to a large extent on the depth of reservoirs. Shallow-water lakes are richer in organic life, so thick layers of organic sediments - sapropels - accumulate in them faster. For example, the basins of lakes Orsha (Novorzhevsky district), Bolshoye (Ostrovsky district), Malenets, Kuchane (Pushkinogorsky district) are three-quarters filled with lake silts, the thickness of which reaches 5-9 m.

Deep reservoirs are less rich in life, so sediments are deposited in them more slowly and are predominantly of mineral composition - clay and fine-grained sand. It is no coincidence that in the relatively deep lakes Yasskoe, Ale, Glubokoe, Sinovets, Usvyacha, the thickness of bottom sediments is only 2.5-3 m. The sediments here do not even cover the primary irregularities of the bottom of the lake basin.

Climate fluctuations also affect the life of reservoirs. Scientists have found that over the past 12 thousand years the climate has changed repeatedly.

A very warm and dry climate was observed 3700-2400 years ago. The level of reservoirs at this time dropped by 2-3 m, and many shallow lakes turned into swamps. Due to the great dryness, the swamps were overgrown with forest, as indicated by tree stumps found in peat bogs.

Over the past 2,400 years, the climate has become humid and cool, the level of reservoirs has risen somewhat, and their banks have become overgrown.

Judging by the structure of the swamps, over the last 10 thousand years, lakes up to 6-8 m deep, which were previously widespread in the Pskov and Priilmen lowlands, have disappeared. The area of ​​the lakes reached tens of kilometers, although their depths did not exceed 6-8 m. Due to their shallow water, such reservoirs were short-lived. Turned out to be relatively more durable deep lakes hills and the marginal zone of the Valdai Glacier, which are well preserved here to this day. True, they too have changed: the area has decreased, the depths have decreased. Thus, the area of ​​Sebezh lakes Necheritsa, Osyno, and Sebezhskoe decreased by almost one third. If the original depth of Lake Sebezh was 12-14 m, currently it is 5-6 m.

The process of swamping water bodies under natural conditions lasts for millennia, but as a result economic activity a person's speed can increase significantly. There are cases when lakes disappear within the lifetime of one generation of people, that is, within several decades.

When describing the reservoirs of the Pskov province in 1907-1908. 15 lakes were identified, which, as a result of overgrowing and swamping, turned into hayfields. So in the Izborsk volost in the 80s. XVIII century There was Lake Bodaevskoe with an area of ​​18 hectares. In 1907, the lake was already listed as a hayfield.

Not far from Novorzhev there is a swamp called Krasny Lebedinets, in which there is a reed area of ​​about 50 hectares. Back in 1922, there was Walnut Lake, and a few years later, separate parts of the lake were preserved.<окна>in the middle of a low-lying swamp. The reasons for accelerated waterlogging are deforestation, plowing of land, application of mineral fertilizers to fields, drainage of swamps, and lowering of lake levels. Deforestation and plowing of lake catchments accelerate the flow of mineral and organic substances into them and siltation. In the southern regions of the Pskov region, where the terrain is very hilly, washed away soils occupy about 40%. Fine earth washed away from fields by melt and storm waters ultimately accumulates in lakes. Consequently, the more the lake's catchment area is plowed, the more intense the accumulation of lake sediments occurs.

In the last decade, several times more mineral fertilizers have been applied to the fields of collective and state farms than were applied 15-20 years ago. Melt and storm water carry phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium from fields into lakes, which<удобряют>lakes and cause rapid development of aquatic vegetation. This leads to a sharp increase in the productivity of organic matter, which does not have time to fully mineralize. Part of it enters bottom sediments, accelerating the process of accumulation of lake sediments.

Draining swamps for reclamation purposes also leads to shallowing of water bodies. A striking example is the fate of Lake Velye, which is located in the Pushkinogorsk region.

As a result of reclamation work, dozens of small reservoirs disappeared. Sometimes even large lakes descend. In the 1950s Shchiritskoye Lake with an area of ​​160 hectares was drained on the Kripetskoye swamp.

Intensive development of Polistovsky peat deposits will ultimately also lead to swamping of large but shallow lakes Polisto, Dubet, Tsevlo, etc.

However, humans are able to extend the life of reservoirs. Figuratively speaking, a person can<лечить>lakes, that is, to restore a favorable hydrological, hydrochemical and hydrobiological regime. Exist various ways recovery. The most effective way is to stop the discharge of contaminated wastewater into a body of water or to thoroughly clean it.

Near Novorzhev there is Lake Orsha, which, under the influence of city wastewater, is intensively polluted, silted up and overgrown. At one time, sapropel was mined there. This immediately affected the improvement of the hydrochemical regime of the water. A project is currently being drawn up to clean the lake of silt, which will be used to fertilize fields.

In a simple way The improvement of small reservoirs is cleaning them from silt. It is especially economically beneficial for lakes filled with sapropels. This method gave positive results in the south of the region, where as a result of the extraction of sapropel, six lakes were cleaned: Melenka, Kolpinskoye, Babye - in Pustoshkinsky, Plavtsovskoye - in Novosokolnichesky, Topuchee - in Usvyatsky, Malenets - in Pushkinogorsky districts. If the depth of these lakes before cleaning was 0.5-1 m, then after cleaning it became 4-5 m. The hydrochemical regime of the reservoirs improved, and fish appeared in them.

Water mode lakes can be improved by raising their levels by building dams on the rivers flowing from them.

In the 1970s As a result of reclamation work, Zaplusskoye Lake became very shallow. At the initiative of the Plyussky District Society of Hunters and Fishers, the drainage ditches were blocked. The level of the reservoir rose, and the living conditions of the fish immediately improved noticeably.

In case of oxygen starvation of the lower layers of water, the aeration method is used, when compressed air is pumped into them. Aeration is especially widely used to combat winter kills, mainly on shallow lakes. To combat water blooms, that is, the growth of blue-green algae that heavily pollute water bodies, they are successfully used. chemical methods, including the introduction copper sulfate, chlorine or lime chloride.

Therefore, today it becomes possible<омолодить>bodies of water, give them a second life. This is especially true for lakes, which gravitate towards cities and large settlements: Nevelskogo, Orsha, Dulova, Velya, Tsevlo.

The glacier did not survive either. Having melted 12 thousand years ago, it left behind many lakes with stagnant water, which opened the way for a new swamp-forming process.

But the swamps did not suddenly appear from them. The cold made itself felt for a long time, preventing the normal development of plants and animals. And without their active participation, nothing worthwhile could happen in the lifeless waters. But physical processes have already gone in the right direction. Mineral sediments began to be deposited at the bottom of reservoirs, carried by wind and rain from the surrounding hills. With the appearance of full-fledged plankton (freely wandering small organisms) in stagnant waters and a surge of coastal life, lake silt, or sapropel, began to form from the organic mass deposited at the bottom (from the Greek “sapro” - rotten and “pelos” - dirt). And in small lakes that quickly overgrow with greenery there is peat, bypassing the sapropel stage characteristic of large reservoirs.

Centuries passed. The peat deposits grew little by little. Their most rapid formation, as many experts suggest, began 8 thousand years ago, which was facilitated by warming, climate humidification and some other favorable processes.

The main factors of the swamp-forming process that are still active today can be judged based on the given diagram. There are quite a lot of them and they all interact with each other.

Peat filling of reservoirs is not the only way to form swamps, and not even the most common. Under appropriate conditions, dry land also becomes swampy, which will also be discussed in due time. But the birth of a peat bog (and it is this that interests us most) is most convenient to consider using the first example. Moreover, this model is the most studied.

Turning a lake into a swamp is an extremely slow process. It lasts for thousands of years, during which the reservoir gradually becomes overgrown. From the land, moisture-loving vegetation persistently attacks it. She first conquers the shallow waters that are more accessible to her and, without stopping, step by step, moves further into the depths. As if helping the green conquerors, the bottom of the lake itself is gradually rising due to the dying remains of plants and plankton. Under the pressure of vegetation, the lake becomes shallower from year to year, covered with greenery, which is bordered by tall, dense reeds, reeds and various kinds of sedges. Science knows cases when a process fades due to its development. Something similar happens in an overgrown lake. The rich biological community emerging in its waters (fish, plankton, crustaceans, etc.) is in fact a prelude to the gradual disappearance of the reservoir.

The remarkable Russian scientist and great connoisseur of genies Andrei Timofeevich Bolotov (1738-1833) once remarked: “Although herbs seem to us to grow mixed with each other and the real rubbish, this disorder is not so great when we look closer.” Bolotov meant ordinary vegetation. Ozernaya has much more order. A certain zonality is visible in its distribution over depths. V.N. Sukachev identifies six such zones: 1) shallow, 2) reed, 3) water lilies, 4) broad-leaved pondweed, 5) macrophytes and 6) microphytes. Let us consider (in reverse order, as the volume of biomass grows) what each of them represents.

Microphyte zone(that is, microscopic single-celled organisms). The deepest, however, does not produce much organic production relative to area or volume. Lower spore plants reign here. Mostly blue-green algae with a small admixture of green and diatoms. And, of course, the ubiquitous plankton - a community of small creatures “floating” in the water. It includes numerous species bacteria and protozoa, some algae and animals, as well as eggs and larvae of the latter.

Macrophyte zone(large herbaceous plants visible to the naked eye). It is located closer to the shore and consists of larger plants, both spore-bearing and flowering, than in the previous zone. Here you can find hornwort, narrow-leaved pondweed, individual mosses and entire underwater meadows of charophyte algae.

Broadleaf pondweed zone. Occupies depths of 4-5 meters or less. The name speaks for itself. But in addition to the three types of dominant pondweeds that form the botanical basis of the zone, hedgehog and urut also grow in it. And from the previous strip, hornwort and charophyte algae can visit.

Water Lily Zone. Includes not only expressive white water lily beauties, the soul of the lake. But also her sisters - egg pods, or yellow water lilies, very similar to the first ones biological features. These creatures curiously peeking out of the water are kept company by floating pondweed. All of them, unlike the completely submerged plants of the zones listed above, extend their wide leaves along the water surface, making maximum use of favorable opportunities for photosynthesis.

Reed zone. It is located mainly at a depth of two to three meters. It has its own peculiarity: the outer parts of the plants included here (reed, reed, trident, riverine or swamp horsetail and others) significantly rise above the water surface. This is already somewhat reminiscent of the famous mangroves - the “legs” are bathed in water, and the “head” and a significant part of the “torso” are in the rays of the sun. The thickets of proudly standing, stately grasses in this zone are quite compact. But if free gaps appear in this dense space, they are often occupied by guests from the previous green strip. Nature does not tolerate emptiness here either.

Shallow (or coastal) zone. Extends to a depth of approximately one meter. Here the richest in terms of ancestral and species composition flora: various sedges, arrowhead, plantain chastuha, snorkel, water buckwheat, pondweed, water pine, water buttercups and a number of others.

The above division is to a certain extent arbitrary, both in terms of the number of zones (E. A. Elina, for example, has seven of them) and in terms of the association of hygrophytes with them. Their discipline is not quite right. Sukachev himself emphasizes that there are many free-floating plants that cannot be strictly attributed to a specific zone. Among the regular border violators are the duckweed, the duckweed, the bladderwrack, the frogwort, the telores and some others. It also happens that zones become stratified, merged, or even disappear altogether. Weight depends on prevailing conditions.

The ecological situation in the reservoir changes from year to year due to the activity of the flora itself. Due to its dying organic remains, layers of bottom sediments slowly but uncontrollably grow. This changes the nutritional regime of plants and affects their spatial “registration”. The former often becomes optional.

Each vegetation zone automatically prepares the ground for the next one, thereby undermining the foundation of his own existence here. The shift of zones in depth creates new bridgeheads for vegetation to invade areas increasingly distant from the shore. Millennia pass and the moment comes when the first ranks of green invaders finally close in. The reservoir is completely overgrown, which usually coincides with its peat formation, which occurs in parallel. Its place is completely and completely occupied by a swamp.

This is in the most general outline diagram of the infinitely long biological evolution of the lake. But not everyone. Deep-water bodies of water with steep steep banks do not fit into it. For the simple reason that in the lake world there are no such plant giants that would reach its bottom with their roots. But nature has provided another way out here - an attack from above. Hygrophytes such as trifoli, cinquefoil, and whitewing are capable of pulling their stems along the water surface. Sedges, horsetails, ferns, snork, vekh and other rhizomatous plants readily settle on this creeping organic litter. Closely intertwined, they create a green carpet floating together on the water. Year after year it becomes denser, thickens, and expands. This is the so-called floating or near-surface phytocenosis. At the same time, there is an increase in bottom organic matter, formed from dying plankton and natural plant losses. From it, according to the already mentioned scheme, first sapropel is formed, and then peat. Total stock it is supplemented on top by the products of incomplete decomposition of the alloy.

Time passes. The green ring finally contracts, marking the complete triumph of the swamp. The Blue Eye ceases to exist.

Young, immature raft, gaping here and there with “windows”, poses a considerable danger to lovers of swamp walks. People call it “zybun”. It bends under the weight, like a hammock, and sometimes cannot support the weight of a person. This doesn't bode well. Under the shaggy green blanket there is a black hole. Woe to those who accidentally find themselves in it. There is little chance of getting out without outside help.

The considered paths of peat formation in lakes are not strictly isolated, researchers of this significant historical process, rich in mysteries, are convinced. Often they occur simultaneously within the same body of water.

There are many swamps of lake origin in Belarus, in my native Smolensk region, in the Moscow region. The huge Meshchera swamps, or “mshars,” are also nothing more than lakes that have been overgrown for thousands of years. Once these edges were covered with thick layers of ice, after the melting of which numerous depressions with water remained. Many of them were destined to become swamps. Instead of blue ones here

Green-gray colors now predominate, formed by thickets of sphagnum, lingonberries, gonobobel, and cuckoo flax. “When you stand in the middle of such a swamp,” writes Paustovsky, “the former high shore of the lake - the “mainland” - with its dense pine forest is clearly visible on the horizon. Here and there on the moss you can see sandy mounds overgrown with pine and ferns - former islands. Locals These mounds are still called “islands” to this day. Moose spend the night on the “islands.”

Everyone knows that Russia's most famous river, the Volga, flows out of a swamp that was once a lake. The latter was recently established by employees of Tver University. Journalists presented the message as a sensation. But for swamp scientists, this particular case only confirmed an old truth well known to them.

Swamps, as already emphasized, are perfectly formed on land - in river valleys and interfluves, on the outskirts of lakes, in places where springs emerge, etc. In a word, on depressions or plains where flood and rain water easily accumulates. But elevated terrain is not excluded at all. As long as there are the hydrological prerequisites necessary for waterlogging: constant or periodic flooding, poor water flow and a waterproof retaining pound. When they exist, the swamp formation process is not stopped even by... mountains. My good friend and avid climber Dmitry Ponomarenko encountered a real swamp on the rocks Central Caucasus. There was a churning sound underfoot, a squelching sound, and they began to fall ankle-deep and higher into the water. “Is it really a swamp? - he was surprised. - At an altitude of 3000 meters!” Everything indicated that this was exactly the case. There are even hummocks and sedges all around. And along the edges there are stones and dryness. This was probably one of the drainless basins that was subject to local swamping. Such cases are known to swamp scientists.

Professor K.P. Rakhmanina, a well-known botanist in Tajikistan and the former Soviet Union, enthusiastically told me about the mountain swamps in the Pamirs in Dushanbe. “There’s even peat there,” she emphasized, promising to show everything in kind the next day. I had heard enough about high-mountain peat pockets and was ready to see everything with my own eyes. But the planned excursion did not take place. It was a turbulent summer in 1990. Gangs were already operating in the mountains. Just the day before, literally ten kilometers from Dushanbe, they stopped a car at a pass and killed the passengers. Interethnic clashes began and we were advised not to take risks. Moreover, it would have to be the only route to travel.

In our predominantly low-lying, flat terrain, such elements of its landscape as meadows, forests, cutting areas, former fires, etc., become swamped on dry lands. We will not dwell on the dynamics of the process, so as not to bore the reader with specific scientific details. We will limit ourselves to a brief description of already formed (in various locations) swamps.

According to the most popular classification, they are all divided into three main types: lowland, transitional and upland. Some experts (Bakhnov, 1986, etc.) consider them stages of a single swamp-forming process that are separated in time. Something like childhood, youth and maturity in a person. Just as a child, growing up, turns into an adult, so a young (lowland) swamp, developing, transforms into an upland swamp - its highest state.

What is a lowland swamp - a natural undergrowth, which, however, can be more than one thousand years old?

This is a formation most often with a thin but well-decomposed peat deposit, which forms both on flooded dry lands and on overgrown lakes and oxbow lakes. As a rule, it is highly watered and has the best mineral composition. Scientists call this swamp eutrophic(from the Greek “eu” - good + “trophe” - nutrition). It creates fairly tolerable conditions for the growth and development of plants, which is confirmed by the diversity of lowland flora.

Here live not only green (hypnum) mosses and numerous grasses (various sedges - sharp, tall, swollen, vesicular, etc., reeds, horsetails - riverine and marsh, cattails, manna, watch, cinquefoil, etc.), but also trees (spruce, pine, black alder, warty birch, less often downy birch, sometimes ash) and some shrubs (for example, willows - ash-gray, five-stamen, lopar, rosemary, etc.). The peat deposit is formed by the remains of these plants. Sphagnum mosses are almost never found on it.

Lowland swamps have a flat or concave surface. Characteristic elements of the landscape are sedge and tree hummocks, as well as numerous depressions (hollows) in which groundwater appears. Such swamps are most typical for Belarusian Polesie.

Since childhood, Sergei Aksakov, in love with swamps, adored more than anything else “clean, meadow, flooded with spring streams, overgrown with bushes and rare trees. How good it is on a warm spring morning! The water froze, leaving here and there wet traces and small manes of alluvial soil from the black earth fields. Nowhere does vegetation appear with such force. The sun scorches the moist, rich soil and pulls herbs and flowers out of it: you can almost see how they grow,” the writer admires. Judging by the description, we are talking about a floodplain swamp.

Convex raised bogs usually form on watersheds under conditions of moisture from atmospheric precipitation. They differ from lowland ones by a thick layer of slightly decomposed and, therefore, poor nutrients peat, as well as its strong acidity. In science they are also called oligotrophic(from the Greek oligos - small + trophe - nutrition). They are the most uniform in the species composition of plants, which is explained not only by a lack of food, but also (don’t be surprised!) by a lack of moisture. Judge for yourself: the raised bog, growing, as they say, “top up,” moves its surface further and further away from the pound waters. Its middle can rise above the edges by 4-5, or even 10 meters! Moisture at such a considerable height from the depths is weak and the roots (especially in dry summers) often have to rely only on wet mercy from the sky.

The most paradoxical thing in this moisture-stressed situation is that the swamp lens can be overfilled with water. It may even... burst under its pressure. One such case is described by the famous French geographer Jean Jacques Elisée Reclus. It happened in 1821 in Ireland. A large peat bog in the center of a vast plain suddenly broke through the mossy banks surrounding it and began to spread throughout the surrounding area. Streams of mud demolished houses and flooded forests over an area of ​​twelve square kilometers. It is possible that some underground forces served as the impetus for the breakthrough. After all, before bursting, the surface of the swamp was agitated for a long time, like the sea, and from its depths came dull rumbles like underground thunder.

Only very unpretentious plants live in raised bogs. Mosses predominate among the indigenous inhabitants. Especially sphagnum - the most undemanding to the diet and tolerates high acidity well. An alkaline environment, on the contrary, is disastrous for them. In addition to mosses, grasses grow here - cotton grass, white rosemary, Scheuchzeria, cloudberry, crowberry, sundew (round-leaved, English, etc.), as well as shrubs - wild rosemary, heather, cranberry, blueberry, Cassandra, whiteberry. The most common trees are pine.

The dominance of sphagnum mosses in the vegetation suppresses the development higher plants. Many of them look depressed. The same pine, for example, forms small and sparse stands of trees, which are called nothing less than small forests. These pines look clumsy, squat, and mossy, although many are already old women in age.

The microrelief of the raised bog is mostly hilly: cotton grass hummocks, moss hillocks and ridges with shoots of bushes running through them. The highest of the ridges are crowned with the trunks of frail pines.

The share of raised bogs in Belarus is 18.2% of the total area of ​​bogs. Most of them are in the Vitebsk and Minsk regions. One of the largest is Yelnya,

located on the territory of Miory and Sharkovshchinsky districts. Its area is 23.2 thousand hectares. In 1968, the swamp became a hydrological reserve of republican significance. Now his status has been elevated. The complex is included in the category of Ramsar sites requiring special protection. In the Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve, the Domzheritsky raised bog, about twenty kilometers wide, stretches almost to Lepel. They are in the Pripyatsky Nature Reserve and Belovezhskaya Pushcha. There are many raised bogs in the Glubokoe region. Some of them have cranberry reserves.

I think there is no need to describe transitional swamps that occupy an intermediate position here. It is important to note only the characteristic plants of these places: birches - fluffy and squat, cotton grass and a whole series of sphagnum mosses - narrow-leaved, central, obtuse, reflexed and others, which are especially abundant here.

Thus, the hydrological, soil and climatic uniqueness of the swamps also determines their floristic specificity. “The relationship between environmental conditions and the nature of vegetation,” notes Sukachev, “is unlikely to be as clearly represented in any of our types of vegetation as in swamps. The originality of the life of a swamp is further enhanced by the fact that the environment itself, in particular the substrate on which vegetation develops, is almost entirely a product of the activity of this same vegetation.”

It was emphasized above (Bakhnov, 1986) that in the process of its development, every young swamp tends to turn into a raised swamp. This occurs as a result of increasing depletion of mineral nutrition. At the same time, the soil becomes more and more acidified, the environment-forming, or, more simply put, oppressive influence of sphagnum mosses increases. Birch is replaced by pine, complex plant communities become increasingly simpler.

The last stage of development of the swamp, notes V.K. Bakhnov, is accompanied by the oppression of the “oppressors” themselves - sphagnum mosses. Liverworts, lichens, and subsequently algae, which colonize the dead moss turf, are introduced into their cover. General focus The change of marker plants is as follows: angiosperms (flowering) → gymnosperms (conifers) → sphagnum mosses → liver mosses → lichens → algae, that is, from more advanced types of plants to primitive ones. Compared to the basic development formula organic world(from simple to complex) here it turns out to be “evolution in reverse.” Nature loves unexpected turns. Maybe that’s why her unique creations are so captivating!

So, a short scientific excursion into the history of the swamp is over and we could put an end to this. But I would like to finally add a lyrical touch.

For the vast majority of people, the peat bog serves as a type of monotony and boredom, says Professor K. Lampert. But a true friend of Nature sees a peculiar charm in this landscape. He is touched even by the dampness itself, which lies for a long time on the swamp soil in the morning, and by the impressive play of light. “Heavy with dew, the plants droop; the sunlight falling on them is reflected in thousands of drops, which barely penetrates the layers of evaporation lying above the peat.” The sun rises higher and the air above the swamp begins to tremble and sparkle. The eyes notice red sundew leaves freed from the power of the fog, magnificent bushes of white cotton grass, framing hummocks everywhere, cranberries and blueberries, and duckweed floating on the water. The scarlet beads of lingonberries look invitingly from the lush moss carpet. This is an independent quiet little world with an original community of plant and animal organisms. It is dominated by dull colors, but life worthy of respect is teeming everywhere, triumphing under the warm sun. We will return to it later.