Mysterious Story of a Baikal Sponge

Why is the water in Lake Baikal, one of the most beautiful Russian lakes, so pure and crystal clear? It is purified by neither people nor man-made filters nor cleaning installations but by hardly noticeable organisms playing a crucial role in the lake’s ecosystem. Sponges called Lubomirskia baikalensis are among them. Lately, they began to change their colour from bright-green to greyish-pink, get ill and die. It means that the Baikal ecology undergoes negative changes. Thanks to the superpower to filter water, a sponge accumulates toxic substances even if their concentration in water is too small. This comic strip tells us about the way JINR researchers from the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems and the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, and also scientists from the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences investigated whether sponges can be considered bioindicators of Lake Baikal’s pollution.

This comic strip is the outcome of the joint project of the Dzhelepov Laboratory of Nuclear Problems and the Komikadze group, a collaborative association of scriptwriters, artists, illustrators, and science educators.