Impacts of Airborne Contamination on Regional Soil and Water Quality: The Kola Peninsula, Russia

Regional geochemical mapping of 188 000 km2 in the European Arctic demonstrates that long-range atmospheric transport of heavy metal pollution from industrial emitters on the Kola Peninsula (nickel smelters, roasting plant, and refinery at Nikel, Zapoljarnij, and Monchegorsk, Russia) currently does...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Environmental science & technology 2000-07, Vol.34 (13), p.2727-2732
Main Authors:	Reimann, Clemens, Banks, David, Caritat, Patrice de
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Animal, plant and microbial ecology Applied ecology Applied sciences Biological and medical sciences Biological and physicochemical phenomena Biological and physicochemical properties of pollutants. Interaction in the soil Contamination Earth sciences Earth, ocean, space Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution Effects of pollution and side effects of pesticides on plants and fungi Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics Environmental impact Exact sciences and technology Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Natural water pollution Pollution Pollution, environment geology Quality Russia, Kola Peninsula Soil and sediments pollution Soils Water resources Water treatment and pollution
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Regional geochemical mapping of 188 000 km2 in the European Arctic demonstrates that long-range atmospheric transport of heavy metal pollution from industrial emitters on the Kola Peninsula (nickel smelters, roasting plant, and refinery at Nikel, Zapoljarnij, and Monchegorsk, Russia) currently does not seem to present a major environmental threat on a regional scale, with the majority of heavy metal emissions being deposited as particulates near the sources. Furthermore, no regional impact of acid rain can, as yet, be observed in the distributions of pH, alkalinity, and sulfur in humus, mineral soils, or lake water. Large-scale natural phenomena (e.g., displacement of protons from the organic soil layer by input of marine cations) appear to be more important for the regional distribution of pH in humus and surface waters than input of sulfur (acid rain). The importance of documenting and understanding the regional significance and scale of geochemical processes before initiating environmental monitoring or detailed investigations on a very local (e.g., catchment) scale is underlined by these results. Emission of basic particles from industry seems to counteract to a large extent environmental acidification, and this should be taken into account when devising emission control procedures.
ISSN:	0013-936X 1520-5851