Mushrooms grow in the waters of Lake Baikal

They live in the water column and may feed on microplastics

A group of Russian scientists studied mushrooms in the waters of Lake Baikal for the first time. They reported this at a conference held at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education on the expeditionary activities of researchers in internal and external waters.

The benthos of Baikal contains various groups of organisms – protozoa, mollusks, amphipods, sponges, insect larvae, worms, crayfish, sponges, tardigrades, water mites and others.

One of the common types of microorganisms living in the dry Baikal water are microscopic fungi.

Their peculiarity is the high rate of growth and reproduction, as well as great genetic plasticity, which allows fungi to quickly adapt to changing environmental conditions. For example, the ability of microfungi to quickly respond to the effects of unfavorable environmental factors by transitioning to temporary anabiosis was revealed.

There are thousands of species of mushrooms in Baikal, and so far, according to scientists, they have only just begun to seriously study them.

To date, about 820 species of micromycete fungi (fungi that form macroscopic fruiting bodies larger than 1 mm in size) of different systematic groups are known.

One of the objects on which microscopic aquatic organisms can live (and apparently feed on them) are microplastic particles.

It is generally accepted that the presence of fungi in water, apart from its contamination, does not affect anything else. However, according to environmentalists, this is a misconception. After all, mushrooms are a source of food for other aquatic organisms.