Morphometric features of the relief and distribution of lakes in Lake Ladoga catchment

The vast catchment area of the largest European lake – Lake Ladoga, is the second largest in Russia after that of Lake Baikal. It is characterized by a variety of underlying surface types and a complex hydrographic network representing glacial and aqueo-glacial relief forms. A comprehensive geomorphometric analysis of the relief in Ladoga Lake catchment, specifying the number and sizes of lakes in different elevation belts, revealed for the first time the characteristic features of their distribution based on a digital model and confirmed the differences between the selected catchment elevation intervals. The total number of lakes in the Ladoga catchment was estimated at about 21 400, excluding water bodies smaller than 0.01 km2. The percentage covers of lakes by elevation rangeswere re-estimated, showing their decrease towards higher elevations. The greatest number of lakes is found at elevations between 75 and 200 m, accounting for about 77 % of the total number of lakes larger than 0.01 km2. Median lake sizesvaryamongelevation ranges of the Ladoga catchment from 0.04 to 0.06 km 2 . A majority of lakes in the selected elevation ranges, 59 to 100 % of the total number, are small lakes up to 0.3 km 2 . The relief profile curvature is an objective indicator that denudation processes prevail over accumulation processes at elevations higher than 250 m. A first estimate of the volume of the basin of the Lake Ladoga catchment is given.