Current state of the natural environment of the southwestern shore of Lake Baikal (Slyudyansky district)
I.A. BELOZERTSEVA1,2, I.B. VOROBYEVA1, N.V. VLASOVA1
1V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia
2V.M. Matrosov Institute for System Dynamics and Control Theory, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia
Keywords: surface waters, snow, soils, vegetation, technogenesis, recreation
Abstract
The article presents the results of the research carried out on the basis of field and desktop analytical studies conducted in 2024 on the southwestern shore of Lake Baikal. Samples of snow, surface waters, soil and vegetation were collected at key sites. Geochemical parameters of the main components of the natural environment near the settling tanks, industrial site of the BPPM, and coastal settlements with a high recreational load are presented. It was found that the content of heavy and alkaline earth metals, SO42- , NO3- , NH4+ , PO43- ions in snow near the village of Kultuk and the towns of Slyudyanka and Baikalsk exceeded background values; concentrations of NH4+ , Pb and petroleum products in snow water exceeded the MAC and APC. The main sources of pollution are construction and road enterprises, thermal power plants, boiler houses, railway and automobile transport, waste landfills, and settling tanks. The sources of surface water pollution with phosphates and ammonium are housing and communal service facilities. Soil pollution with heavy metals has been detected in the recreational and industrial zones located on the lake shore. Regional features of correlations between the concentrations of macro- and microelements in soils and the hydrogen index, organic carbon content, and physical clay fraction have been identified, which indicates the presence of biogeochemical barriers where they accumulate in concentrations above the MAC. The biological absorption coefficient showed a dependence on acid-alkali conditions. The coefficient of migration of microelements into surface waters from soils is low. However, in the coastal waters of the lake, concentrations of heavy metals exceed the MAC for fishery waters due to their large amount in soils. Macroelements have a higher migration intensity. It has been established that, the concentrations of fluorides, phosphates, ammonium, nitrate and nitrite nitrogen exceed the background levels in the waters of the settling tank, the estuary zones of the Khara-Murino, Kharlakta, Utulik rivers and in the coastal waters of the lake near Baikalsk, Utulik, Slyudyanka and Kultuk.
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