A Relict Lagoon in the Porya Bay (White Sea, Kandalaksha Bay): What Has Changed over the Past 90 Years?

In the 1930s, a scientific group from the White Sea Methodological Station of the State Hydrological Institute studied in detail a relict reservoir in the eastern part of the Porya Bay under the local name “Ozerki.” It consists of three reaches, one is connected to the sea at high tide, the next is connected with the first through a narrow shallow strait, and the last, apex reach communicates with the middle one. A re-examination almost 90 years later showed that due to the ongoing post-glacial uplift of the coast, the thresholds separating the “Ozerki” from the sea became shallower. With the help of pressure loggers, it has been established that the tide in the lagoon now begins at a sea level 20–30 cm higher than in the 1930s. As a result of progressive isolation, a stable vertical stratification has developed in the apex reach indicating possible meromoxis, and an anoxic zone with a high hydrogen sulfide concentration has appeared, which occupies a third of the depth of the reservoir; the concentration of mineral phosphorus increased by two orders of magnitude. In the reaches, an increase in the total abundance of zooplankton is traced with distance from the sea, an additional ecological niche appears—a chemocline, in which marine rotifers dominate in the early stages of isolation, and polychaete larvae from the order Spionidae dominate after the formation of a permanent hydrogen sulfide zone.

1. Carlson R.E. A trophic state index for lakes. Limnol. Oceanogr., 1977, vol. 22, pp. 361‒369. https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1977.22.2.0361

2. Deryugin K.M. White Sea station of the State Gydrological Institute. Priroda, 1935, no. 10, pp. 83‒85. (In Russ.). Deryugin K.M. Reliktovoe ozero Mogilnoe (ostrov Kildin v Barentzevom more) [The Relict Lake Mogilnoe, Island Kildin in the Barents Sea]. Leningrad: Glavnauka Publ., 1925. 112 p.

3. Gurvich G.S., Sokolova E.V. To the knowledge of the relict reservoirs of the White Sea. Tr. Gos. Gidrol. Inst., 1939, vol. 8, no. 15, pp. 142‒161. (In Russ.).

4. Kompleksnaya nauchno-obrazovatel’naya expeditsiya “Arkticheskyi plavuchii universitet-2021” [Proceedings of the Integrated Scientific and Educational Expedition “Arctic Floating University-2021]. Bogolitzyn K.G., Ed. Arkhangelsk: NARFU, 2021, vol. 2, 394 p.

5. Krasnova E.D. Ecology of meromictic lakes of Russia. 1. Coastal marine waterbodies. Water Resour., 2021, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 427–438. https://doi.org/10.1134/S009780782103009X

6. Krasnova E.D. In search of a relict lagoon. Nauka i Zhizn’, 2020, no. 5, pp. 76‒80. (In Russ.).

7. Krasnova E., Matorin, D., Belevich T., Efimova L., Kharcheva A., Kokryatskaya N., Losyuk G., Todorenko D., Voronov D., Patsaeva S. The characteristic pattern of multiple colored layers in coastal stratified lakes in the process of separation from the White Sea. Chin. J. Oceanol. Limnol., 2018, no. 6, pp. 1‒16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-7323-2

8. Krasnova E.D., Voronov D.A. Influence of chemocline on vertical unevenness of zooplankton in coastal stratified water bodies separated from the White Sea. In Tr. X Mezhdunar. nauchn.-prakt. konf. “Morskie issledovaniya i obrazovanie (MARESEDU-2021) [Proc. X Int. Conf. "Marine Research and Education” MARESEDU2021]. Tver: PolyPRESS, 2022, vol. 2, pp. 82–86. (In Russ.).

9. Krasnova E.D., Voronov D.A., Demidenko N.A., Kokryatskaya N.M., Pantyulin A.N., Rogatykh T.A., Samsonov T.E., Frolova N.L., Shaporenko S.I. For inventory of relict basins separated from the White Sea. In Kompleksnye issledovaniya Babiego morya, polu-izolirovannoi belomorskoi laguny: geologiya, gidrologiya, biota [Integrated Research of the Babie More, Semi-Isolated White-Sea Lagoon: Geology, Hydrology, Biota]. Tr. Belomorskoi biostantsii MGU [Proc. White Sea Biol. Station of Lomonosov Moscow State Univ.], vol. 12. Moscow: KMK Publ., 2016, pp. 211–241. (In Russ.).

10. Krasnova E.D., Voronov D.A., Kozhin M.N. In search of a relict lagoon studied 85 years ago: EXPLORING the Vostochnaya Poriya, Pedunikha, and Malaya Pirya scoop-like bays on the Kandalaksha coast of the White Sea. In Tr. VIII Mezhdunar. nauchn.-prakt. konf. Morskie issledovaniya i obrazovanie (MARESEDU-2019) [Proc. VIII Int. Conf. “Marine Research and Education” Moscow, 28-31 October 2019 MARESEDU2019]. Tver: PolyPress, 2020, vol. 2, pp. 310–313. (In Russ.).

11. Kreps E.M. Gidrologicheskii ocherk Chernoi guby na Novoi Zemle i reliktovykh ozer, k nei primykayushchikh [Hydrological Sketch of the Chernaya Bay on Novaya Zemlya and Relict Lakes Adjacent to It]. Issledovaniya morei SSSR [Studies of the Seas of the USSR], vol. 5. Leningrad: Gos. Gidrol. Inst., 1927. 80 p.

12. Losyuk G.N., Kokryatskaya N.M., Krasnova E.D. Hydrogen sulfide contamination of coastal lakes at different stages of isolation from the White sea. Oceanol., 2021, vol. 61, pp. 351–361. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001437021020120

13. Mardashova M.V., Voronov D.A., Krasnova E.D. Benthic communities of coastal water bodies at different stages of isolation from the White Sea in the vicinity of the White Sea Biological Station. Biol. Bull., 2020, vol. 47, no. 9, pp. 1133–1152. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359020090095

14. Romanenko F.A., Shilova O.S. The postglacial uplift of the Karelian Coast of the White Sea according to radiocarbon and diatom analyses of lacustrine boggy deposits of kindo peninsula. Dokl. Earth Sci., 2012, vol. 442, pp. 242–246.

15. Rukovodstvo po khimicheskomu analizu morskikh i presnykh vod pri ekologicheskom monitoringe rybokhozyaistvennykh vodoemov i perspektivnykh dlya promysla raionov Mirovogo okeana [Guidance on the Chemical Analysis of Marine and Fresh Waters in the Ecological Monitoring of Fishery Reservoirs and Promising Areas for Fishing in the World Ocean]. Moscow: VNIRO, 2003. 202 p.

16. Shaporenko S.I. Hydrological and hydrochemical characteristics of separating water bodies in the WSBS area (Kandalaksha Bay of the White Sea). In Tr. Belomorskoi Biol. Stanzii [Proc. of the White Sea Biological Station], 2003, vol. 9, pp. 184–190. (In Russ.).