Polar lakes of the World: Current data and status of investigations

Current bathymetric and limnologic data on natural polar lakes of the World is discussed. The principal limnologic data on the largest polar lakes and also on the saline, cold amictic, and meromictic polar lakes are generalized. The geographic, “national”, and “administrative” distributions of polar lakes and also their distribution by the genesis of lake basins are analyzed. The distribution functions of polar lake areas and the regressions relating the water areas of lakes and the storages of lakes are calculated. The total water area and storage of polar lakes are estimated. The study is based on published data for 1432 Arctic and 174 Antarctic lakes, which are collected in the authors’ WORLDLAKE database. Attention is called to the inadequate knowledge of polar lakes.