The Negative Effect of Introduction of New Species into Issyk Kul Lake and Its Impact on the Livelihoods of Local People and the Environment
The negative effect of introduction of new species into Issyk Kul Lake and its impact on the livelihoods of local people and the environment.
Introduction
Issyk Kul is popular tourist destination in Kyrgyzstan. Tourists from Central Asia, Russia and Europe come to enjoy the magnificent view and the serenity of the lake surrounded by humongous mountains of Tianshan. It is regarded as the jewel of the country. 10% of the country’s GDP is contributed by tourism sector, and 9% of it is coming from Issyk Kul lake tourism industry. The local residents rely on seasonal income from tourism industry, but the season is quite short only about 3 months.
Lake and biodiversity.
Issyk Kul is endorheic lake, which means it lies in the basin within the mountains. The lake is supplemented by 118 small rivers and streams from melting snow caps, but does not have an outflow (see picture 1). Although there is a theory that it might have the outflow somewhere deep in underground, it yet has to be studied. Its length is 182 km and width of 60 km, the coverage area is 6236 square km, altitude of 1609 m above sea level and it is second largest high altitude lake in the world after Lake Titicaca in South America. The water, in generally, never freezes because of its level of salinity. The study was done to measure the level of salinity and it shows that the level varies from 4.5 to 7.0% depending on the site where the sample was taken and seasonality. After heavy rains, for example, the level of salinity show as low as 2%. During winter months the water temperature is 5 to 6°C, on the shallow areas in northern part of the lakes the water sometimes freezes.
Biodiversity of the Issyk Kul area consist of 1500 species of plants, 30 species out of it are important wild medical plants; wide variety of mammals (54 species), birds (267species) and 28 species of fish, 11 out of it are indigenous and 7 full species and 1 subspecies are endemic to the lake.
In the native dish fauna of
Introduction
Issyk Kul is popular tourist destination in Kyrgyzstan. Tourists from Central Asia, Russia and Europe come to enjoy the magnificent view and the serenity of the lake surrounded by humongous mountains of Tianshan. It is regarded as the jewel of the country. 10% of the country’s GDP is contributed by tourism sector, and 9% of it is coming from Issyk Kul lake tourism industry. The local residents rely on seasonal income from tourism industry, but the season is quite short only about 3 months.
Lake and biodiversity.
Issyk Kul is endorheic lake, which means it lies in the basin within the mountains. The lake is supplemented by 118 small rivers and streams from melting snow caps, but does not have an outflow (see picture 1). Although there is a theory that it might have the outflow somewhere deep in underground, it yet has to be studied. Its length is 182 km and width of 60 km, the coverage area is 6236 square km, altitude of 1609 m above sea level and it is second largest high altitude lake in the world after Lake Titicaca in South America. The water, in generally, never freezes because of its level of salinity. The study was done to measure the level of salinity and it shows that the level varies from 4.5 to 7.0% depending on the site where the sample was taken and seasonality. After heavy rains, for example, the level of salinity show as low as 2%. During winter months the water temperature is 5 to 6°C, on the shallow areas in northern part of the lakes the water sometimes freezes.
Biodiversity of the Issyk Kul area consist of 1500 species of plants, 30 species out of it are important wild medical plants; wide variety of mammals (54 species), birds (267species) and 28 species of fish, 11 out of it are indigenous and 7 full species and 1 subspecies are endemic to the lake.
In the native dish fauna of