Anthropogenic load and water quality at the main-stream sections of rivers in the arctic zone of Russia

The ongoing anthropogenic impact on the Russian Arctic river ecosystems leads to an anthropogenic transformation of their ecological state, which makes it necessary to assess the anthropogenic load and compare it with the degree of water pollution in the Arctic river mouth areas. The scientific practice uses various approaches to assess the anthropogenic pressure on water bodies. The main approach is to develop a methodology for ecological standardization and determination of critical levels of pressure on aquatic ecosystems. The study deals with the assessment of the level of anthropogenic load on river mouth sections using runoff rates of chemical substances, namely readily oxidizable organic matter, ammonia nitrogen and oil products, which are integral indicators of the quality of the aquatic environment.

The paper presents the results of assessing the anthropogenic load on river mouth sections and water quality data for the Russia Arctic rivers for the periods from 1980 to 1999 and from 2000 to 2018. The objects of research are large rivers, such as Pechora, Ob, Pur, Taz, Yenisei, Anabar, Lena, Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma.

In the process of comparative analysis of the anthropogenic load in terms of the runoff rates of ammonia nitrogen, organic matter, and oil products significant differences were revealed. The rivers of the Pechora River basin and Western Siberia showed higher level of anthropogenic pressure, while the Eastern Siberia rivers are characterized by the lowest total anthropogenic load. The anthropogenic load demonstrates the decreasing dynamics according to most of the estimated indicators for most of the studied large rivers of the Russia Arctic zone. At the same time, water quality of the rivers of the European and East Siberian parts of the Russia Arctic zone varies in between the 3rd and 4th quality classes, while in the West Siberian part in the range of the 4th and 5th classes. Generally, multidirectional tendencies of water quality changes were revealed for the studied rivers. The trend of improving water quality for the studied tributaries of the Pechora River and mouth sections of the Yenisei, Anabar, Indigirka and Kolyma rivers was statistically confirmed based on the correlation analysis.

The results of the study could be useful for the elaboration of environmentally-sound water protection measures to increase the environmental safety in fragile mouth areas of the Arctic rivers.

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