Polychemical pollution of surface waters and permafrost-affected soils in Central and North Yakutia and in North-West Siberia

• Published in: E3S Web of Conferences
• Main Authors: Lupachev Aleksei, Danilov Petr, Ksenofontova Marta, Lodygin Evgeny, Usacheva Anna, Kalinin Pavel, Tikhonravova Yana, Butakov Vladislav
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; French
• Published: EDP Sciences 2020
• Subjects: Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Kolyma; Tazovsky; Yakutsk; permafrost; Yakutia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202016304005; https://doaj.org/article/398a087b5c1e4c56bbed12d648d9f8a9

The concentration of main organic and inorganic pollutants (heavy metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, radionuclides) in surface waters and in water-soil solutions was analysed on three keysites within the permafrost zone: Tazovsky Peninsula (North-West Siberia), Kolyma Lowland (North Yakutia) and adjacent to Yakutsk (Central Yakutia). In the majority of sampling points that are not directly impacted by human activity, the pollutants accumulate in the uppermost organogenic and organo-mineral horizons of natural soils. At the human-affected keysites the major pollutants may accumulate not only in the superficial horizons of the disturbed soils due to the surface runoff but also in the central parts of the profile, in the material buried by cryogenic, solifluction or fluvial processes and in some cases – in the suprapermafrost horizons and in the upper layer of permafrost transported via suprapermafrost water runoff.