Content, Distribution, and Translocation of Trace Elements in Permafrost-Affected Environments of the Siberian Arctic

• Main Author: Antcibor, Iuliia
• Other Authors: Pfeiffer, Eva-Maria (Prof. Dr.)
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky 2014
• Subjects: Hintergrundgehalt; unberührte Gebiete; Trace elements; Permafrost-Affected soils; background concentrations; northeastern Siberia; 500 Naturwissenschaften; 43.12 Umweltchemie; Spurenelement; Dauerfrostboden; Umweltverschmutzung; Sibirien; Klimaänderung; ddc:500; Arctic; Arktis; Arktis*; Climate change; lena river; permafrost; Siberia
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-69785; https://ediss.sub.uni-hamburg.de/handle/ediss/5599

Permafrost-affected environments are characterized by slow biogeochemical cycles due to their low temperatures. The slow rates of biogeochemical processes in Arctic landscapes lead to a high susceptibility to contamination and to a low pollution resistance. Trace metals are one of the major groups of industrial pollutants and can reach the Arctic by different paths, namely through local human activity and via long-range atmospheric transport. At present, the knowledge about the background levels of trace metals and their behavior in soils of the Arctic Regions is very limited, and in particular research is needed to understand the effect of permafrost conditions on trace metal mobility and distribution. This question is particularly important in the light of anticipated changes of climatic conditions. The predicted temperature increase in the Arctic region may lead to an increase of the annual thaw depth of the soils and a change of the groundwater table, which may affect the spatial distribution of contaminants. Therefore, there is a special need to study the processes that govern trace metal distribution in soils affected by permafrost. This knowledge may also help to gain more information about the ecological state of Arctic ecosystems and to estimate possible effects from direct anthropogenic pollution and, subsequently, predicted climate change. Northeast Siberia represents an area remote from evident anthropogenic trace metal sources. This fact affords an opportunity to investigate trace metal levels in pristine environments. Soil samples from the Lena River Delta region and its hinterland, collected in 2009, 2010, and 2011 were analysed. The element concentrations in studied soils varied greatly ranging, for example, from 0.01 to 0.71 mg kg-1 for Cd, from 0.6 to 65.0 mg kg-1 for Cu, from 0.9 to 55.4 mg kg-1 for Ni, from 2.14 to 38.9 mg kg-1 for Pb, and from 12.1 to 440 mg kg-1 for Zn. It could be shown that the Lena River Delta and its hinterland are pristine and can serve as a reference region for ...