Qinghai Lake, known as "West Sea" in ancient times, was renamed "Qinghai" from the Northern Wei Dynasty. When you go to Qinghai, you must go to Qinghai Lake for a walk. Although the northwest is arid and less rainy, there are many lake water systems, and the blue lake is connected to natural enemies, and the southeast coast is large. Parts are tidal flats and the turbid offshore waters are incomparable! Qinghai Lake covers an area of ​​4,543 square kilometers. It is the largest lake and saltwater lake in China!

You heard that right, the water in Qinghai Lake is salty, like sea water, it cannot be drunk! People who eat melons are very curious about a question. Are there marine life in Qinghai Lake, which is full of salt water? Can you live if you catch marine creatures and throw them into Qinghai Lake?

How was Qinghai Lake formed? Was the ocean cut off by an inland lake?

Qinghai Lake is a tectonic rift lake. In the Permian period, the northwest region was still a vast ocean. This is not old and beautiful has sorted out the changes of the earth's continent. Let's take a look at where Qinghai was 280 million years ago!

The location of Qinghai Province 280 million years ago

Although only in the shallow sea, at least it is indeed an ocean! By the time of the junction of the Permian and the Triassic, a continent had been uplifted here, and with the orogeny, a plateau was gradually formed!

The location of Qinghai Province 200 million years ago

It has become inland, but the mountain building has not stopped, it is still rising!

Qinghai in the Age of Dinosaur Extinction

The continent is gradually taking shape, and mountain lakes are also beginning to form, but don’t think that such lakes are inland seas formed after the ocean was cut off, but freshwater lakes formed later due to topographical features. You didn’t see that Qinghai Lake was still formed when it was formed. Freshwater lake! However, at that time, there were more than 100 rivers flowing into the surrounding area, and they also leaked into the Yellow River. At least they were still connected to the outside world!

There are high mountains between Qinghai Lake and the Yellow River

However, in the Quaternary period 1 million years ago, the Riyue Mountains on the east side of Qinghai Lake continued to rise, the outlet into the Yellow River disappeared, and Qinghai Lake became a closed lake with no outlet. Evaporation only increased, the lake surface continued to decline, minerals gradually enriched, and finally a saltwater lake was formed!

However, in the Northern Wei Dynasty 1500 years ago, the circumference of the lake was more than 500 kilometers a week, and in the Tang Dynasty, only 400 kilometers remained, and now it is only 350 kilometers! According to data, the total water entering the lake in Qinghai Lake is 36.28×10^8 cubic meters per year, while the annual water consumption is as high as 41.59×10^8 cubic meters, so the decline in successive years is unavoidable. However, since 2000, the precipitation has increased, The lake continues to expand!

In 2000, the area of ​​Qinghai Lake was more than 4,256.04 square kilometers. In 2013, the area of ​​Qinghai Lake was 4,337.48 square kilometers. In 2017, the area of ​​Qinghai Lake was 4435.69 square kilometers.

Catching marine fish into Qinghai Lake, can it live?

Therefore, Qinghai Lake has gradually transformed from a freshwater lake to a saltwater lake. In theory, the fish in this lake have evolved independently, and they have slowly transformed from the earliest freshwater fish to fish that can adapt to saltwater. !

The fish in Qinghai Lake include Qinghai naked carp (commonly known as Huangyu), hard-thorned loach, and long head loach. Among them, Huangyu has the highest output, with an average annual output of 5,165 tons. However, due to the decline of overfishing fishery resources, it has been included in the protection object. The planned fishing every year gives Qinghai Lake Huangyu time to recover!

Lake Baikal is a fault lake. It was formed about 25 million years ago, and a large number of marine fish were trapped in it. There are more than 300 rivers flowing into Lake Baikal, and the sea water gradually became thinner. These marine creatures gradually adapted to this environment, so now Lake Baikal has the world's unique freshwater marine life, Birberga seals, sharks, conch and lobsters, etc.!

The fish in Qinghai Lake is just the opposite, from freshwater fish to saltwater fish, and they are still alive and well!

Can marine fish be stocked in Qinghai Lake to survive?

The salt content of Qinghai Lake is 1.25%, the average salinity of the lake water is 12.32 g/L, and the average salt content in the ocean is 35‰, which is 3.5%, which is only a little more than 1/3 of the ocean salinity, so marine fish It is difficult to survive in such an environment for a long time, because marine fish survive in high salinity sea water all year round, and the body can maintain normal osmotic pressure, which is the reason why fish can survive in salt water!

Once they reach freshwater, or water with a relatively low concentration, the water will infiltrate from the low concentration side to the high concentration side, so under normal circumstances, freshwater fish and marine fish cannot interchange habitats, otherwise both have to Bye! The Baltic Sea is almost a closed inland sea with only one narrow strait connected to the Atlantic Ocean, while more than 250 rivers flow into it, making the Baltic Sea only 1% salty, making it the ocean with the lowest salinity in the world. Looking up, if the fish of the Baltic Sea are put into Qinghai Lake, the adaptability should be very good!

basal fish

Of course, you must know that many migratory fish can adapt to both seawater and freshwater. This is because the body surface of these fishes has low permeability to water and salt, and they can adjust osmotic pressure in seawater and freshwater with different concentrations. When fresh water goes to sea water, water will be lost and the concentration of body fluid will increase, but salmon will swallow sea water to supplement, and the gills can excrete too much salt, the function of the kidneys will be weakened, and the body weight and body fluid concentration will return to the ocean state! When entering fresh water, the opposite is true, the water in the body increases, and the balance is maintained through drainage!

However, salmon, such as salmon, does not eat at the beginning of the migration, and is destined to die at the end of the migration, but there are other halophilic fish that can survive in Qinghai Lake! Another example is the fish in the estuary of rivers. They can adapt to both seawater and freshwater. It is estimated that these fish are not particularly problematic.

However, if a fish is thrown into Qinghai Lake at will, it may be a biological invasion event in the future, because a brand-new ecology has no natural enemies. If it is adaptable, it may flood in the future! This consequence may be unbearable for Qinghai Lake!

So can you just let it go?

Now the popular release chaos has become a major public hazard. For example, when a terrestrial turtle is released into the sea, people say that it is reluctant to climb up, and they pick it up and throw it further away! Others have released poisonous snakes near the village, which is simply killing them without making money!