A view of the Lake Tanganyika, the world's longest freshwater lake, Tanzania.

 

A view of the Lake Tanganyika, the world's longest freshwater lake, Tanzania.

The world's longest freshwater lake.

East African Lake Tanganyika is probably best known among biologists for its speciose and highly diverse flock of cichlid fishes. The Lake Tanganyika is an ancient African Great Lake and the longest freshwater lake in the world, stretching approximately 673 kilometers (418 miles) north-to-south.
Located in the Western Rift Valley of East Africa, it holds roughly 17% of the world’s unfrozen surface fresh water and is shared by four countries: Tanzania (46%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (40%), Burundi, and Zambia.

Massive Biodiversity: It is a global hub for evolution. The lake houses over 2,000 species of plants and animals, including more than 250 species of colorful cichlid fish, 98% of which are completely endemic (found nowhere else on Earth).
Anoxic Depths: Because of its extreme depth and lack of seasonal temperature mixing (a trait known as being a meromictic lake), there is no oxygen below roughly 200 meters. This creates a massive "dead zone" at the bottom where water has not seen sunlight in millions of years.
Economic Importance: The lake is a lifeline for over 10 million people living in its basin. It provides up to 60% of the animal protein for local populations through its massive commercial fishing industry.
Inflows & Outflows: The lake is fed by major rivers like the Ruzizi, Malagarasi, and Kalambo (which features the famous Kalambo Falls). Its only major exit point is the Lukuga River, which flows into the Congo River system
Location: Tanzania

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The knowledge gap.

Image
Despite their importance, lakes remain among the least monitored water bodies on Earth . Unlike rivers, which often have established gauging stations, lakes are poorly studied, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. UNEP is working to change this. Through tools and initiatives such as the Freshwater Ecosystems Explorer , the UNEP lakes portal , the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and integrated water resources management frameworks, efforts are underway to close data gaps and improve policies, plans and approaches. But we need to scale up, and scale up fast. UNEP launched a landmark, transboundary initiative in the Lake Tanganyika Basin that works across Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia to protect biodiversity, restore critical wetlands and degraded landscapes, support sustainable fisheries management and enhance water security . It will rehabilitate 1,700 hectares of ecosystems and foster catchment-wide governance through commun...
Read more

Why we need to protect, conserve and restore lakes?

Image
Across the world, lakes fed by rivers, glacial melt, groundwater, rain and snow have played an important role in human civilization, culture and development. They contain most of the liquid fresh water on the planet’s surface , house an array of wildlife, and make farming, fishing and industry possible. They also play an important role in water storage, aquifer recharge and air temperature regulation. Yet, due to climate change, pollution, mining, population pressure, and unsustainable use, they are declining at an unprecedented rate. Freshwater ecosystems have lost more extent and biodiversity than almost any ecosystem in the world. The planet’s more than 3 million lakes vary enormously in terms of their salinity and chemical composition, area, depth, biodiversity, the volume of water they store, their ownership (whether publicly or privately owned), the extent to which they are polluted, the rate at which they are shrinking, and more. Lake Baikal in Russia is estimated to contai...
Read more