Welcome to our ‘Quick Facts’ series! In this new series, we are spotlighting remarkable places on our planet while deepening our understanding of aquatic ecosystems. This time, we’ll focus on ancient lakes.

Long-lived lakes are biodiversity hotspots

Ancient or long-lived lakes are classified as lakes sustaining water consistently for at least a million years. They are very rare on our planet.

Their sustained water presence creates isolated aquatic environments where unique species evolve. Therefore, ancient lakes are known to hotspots of biodiversity and endemism. Lake Ohrid in Southeast Europe, for instance, boasts over 200 endemic species of plants and animals.

Insights into long-term environmental change

Despite being rare, the combined freshwater volume of these ancient lakes is enormous. Lake Baikal, for example, carries 20% of the world’s unfrozen freshwater.

Having persisted for millions of years, these long-lived lakes are unique time capsules. In this role, they offer invaluable insights into long‑term environmental change and the resilience of aquatic life.

Lake Zaysan, Kazakhstan. At EOMAP, we retrieved the sum of organic absorption using European Space Agency – ESA Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery.

Lake monitoring across the world

In many lake projects worldwide, we are delivering environmental intelligence. These include Lake Elsinore and  Canyon Lake in the US, Lake Constance and the “land of 1,000 lakes” Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany, or Lake Victoria in Africa.

With space-based insights on water quality, we support utilities, authorities, and industries in smarter risk management and sustainable decision‑making.

Let’s connect

Learn more about integrated water quality monitoring here.

For hands-on insights on your lake, please contact the water quality team.