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The article presents an analysis of the influence of technogenic pollution on the content of biologically active substances and the antioxidant activity of the fruits of Rosa corymbifera Borkh. In the technogenic environment (on the example of the Donetsk region) were revealed an increase in the concentration of anthocyanins, tannins and oxycinnamic acids and a decrease in the level of flavonoids, ascorbic acid and polysaccharides. In the conditions of anthropogenic pressure, the content of flavonoids changes most significantly. A significant (2 times) increase in antioxidant activity under conditions of technogenic load was revealed. The interrelation of the content of heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury) in the soil (mobile forms) and fruits was evaluated. The conformity of the fruits of plants R. corymbifera, growing in the Donetsk region, to the requirements of the regulatory documents was evaluated.

In this article, the problem of specialization of rock ferns to the effects of environmental factors, realized at the morphological and anatomical level, is considered. The purpose of the article was to analyze the anatomical and morphological structure of the homosporous fern Woodsia glabella to identify its correlation with the petrophytic lifestyle in high latitudes. Woodsia glabella is a Holarctic species collected in the Komi Republic, in the Yugyd-va National Park in the clefts of rocks with moss cover. Based on the study, it was found that this obligate lithophyte (hazmophyte) has a relationship between structural features and extreme living conditions on damp rocks at different levels of the organization. At the organismal and organ levels, this is the nanism of sporophytes, which allows the rosette short-rhizomatous biomorph to occupy a warmer ground-level ecological niche; “bunch” biomorph, long-lasting leaf petioles, protecting the kidneys from the drying effects of cold winds, high temperatures, excessive insolation and transpiration; bunch is also involved in the accumulation of its own humus, providing geophitization, in which bryophilia plays an important role; leaf feathering which increases the overall photosynthetic surface in vegetation conditions during a short summer; a summer-green phenorhythmotype adequate to the climate; a tendency to deciduous and the ability to switch to sporulation in the early phases of ontogenesis with sporangia maturing at different times. At the cellular and tissue level, these are thin feather plates; large, chloroplast-containing epidermal cells with sinuous anticlinal walls; hypostomaticity; homogeneous loose mesophyll; low values of the dry weight of the plates; a small number of relatively large stomata per unit area; the presence of phlobafenes in the petioles that increase the resistance of the fern to changing environmental conditions. This study can shed light on the solution of many issues facing modern botany: the problems of structural evolution of plants, which are based on the processes of differentiation and specialization, diagnostics of species, adaptiogenesis, the doctrine of life forms, etc.

Toxicity of bottom sediments from some areas of the Peter the Great Gulf has been studied using bioassay with embryos and larvae of the sand dollar Scaphechinus mirabilis (Agassiz, 1864). Based on the calculation of the integral toxicity index (ITI), different inhibition rates of early larval development are identified in elutriate from the bottom sediments. The effects are the most negative in the coastal zone of the Vladivostok in Gornostay Bay (Ussuriysky Bay) and in the Kozmina Bay (the Nakhodka Bay). Larvae in elutriate from the were characterized by significant anomalies, and the ITI was maximal (ITI = 10). A high percentage of abnormally developed larvae was detected in a sample from Podyapolsky Bay (ITI = 6.08). The results of the study confirm the decrease in the anthropogenic press on the Peter the Great Gulf, except for of local areas adjacent to sea ports and a reclaimed solid domestic waste landfill.

The body shape variability of perch populations in the mountain and semi-mountain reaches of the Loz’va river basin and adjacent lakes Prostaptur and Elesinskoe (Northern Urals) was investigated by geometric morphometrics using box truss method. 23 distances between homologous landmarks were used to describe the body shape variability of fish. About 33 % of the total shape variance in perch is due to the perch inhabiting the gradient of the locations along the river. The spatial variability of the perch body shape in different river reaches 1.3 times exceeded the scale in shape variability which is associated with river and lakes habitats and 1.6 times exceeded the scale of the morphological shift in perch in the lake Prostaptur. A low intra-group diversity of body shape was identified for the perch population in the lakes with a periodic oxygen-deficient in water. The perch from the river with their strong turbulence of mountain currents, variable water-levels of the watercourse and water flow paths have an increased intra-group body shape diversity. It may indirectly indicate some ontogeny change in the individuals from the mountain river, related to the formation of a wide range of ontogenetic trajectories and suggests a greater perch adaptation to periodic low dissolved oxygen in the lakes than to changes in the hydrodynamic regime of the mountain river.

The variability of metric characters of three species of the genus Nitraria ( N. schoberi L., N. sibirica Pall., N. komarovii Iljin & Lava ex Bobrov) in 20 populations of Kazakhstan was studied. It was found that N. sibirica differs from N. schoberi and N. komarovii in small leaves, fruits and seeds, and in the structural features of the inflorescence and flower. N. sibirica is characterized by a larger number of flowers per inflorescence (on average 25-66 pcs.), Compared to N. schoberi and N. komarovii (on average, 14-28 pcs.). N. sibirica also differs from N. schoberi in narrow corolla petals (1.3 times), small anthers (1.46 times in length and 1.2 times in width) and pistils (1.25 times in length and 1.44 times wide). N. komarovii differs from N. schoberi in narrow leaves (1.7 times). N. komarovii has relatively large anthers, especially in width, which, together with smaller corolla petals, distinguishes this species in flowering - N. komarovii flowers look bright yellow, while in N. schoberi they are white, in N. sibirica they are light purple. N. komarovii fruits are orange, pale or bright red. In N. schoberi , fruits are dark-bordered, in N. sibirica , they are black. At the intraspecific level, the stability of most of the metric characters and their independence, except for the habitus of N. sibirica plants, from the 16 studied climatic parameters of the habitats were revealed. At the same time, a number of morphological features were revealed in N. sibirica plants in populations from the Ili Basin. In these populations, N. sibirica plants form bushes up to 1.8 m tall, with a large number of flowers per inflorescence (up to 90 pcs.), Large corolla petals (on average 3.5 mm long; 2.2 mm wide), small anthers (about 0.6 mm), small fruits (5-5.5 mm long) and small (about 4 mm long) narrow ovate bones. These features indicate the ecological-geographical differentiation of N. sibirica under the extra-arid conditions of the stony desert of the basin, and testify in favor of a separate taxonomic rank of these populations.

History of large oil (petroleum) spills in freshwaters is delineated, processes of physical-chemical and biological degradation of oil are regarded. Toxicity of oil for hydrobionts and effects of oil pollution on communities of plankton, benthos and ichthyofauna, as well as problems of removal of ecological consequences of oil spills are discussed. State of ecosystem of Lake Pyasino before the catastrophic spill of 2020, namely hydrochemical indicators, species composition, abundance and biomass of plankton, benthos and fish are described. Possible ways of recovery of ecosystem of Lake Pyasino are suggested, including a biomanipulation “bottom-up”.

The results of the hydrochemical analysis of consequences of the accidental fuel release in the Norilsk-Pyasino water system are presented. Pollution of watercourses in the catchment of lake Pyasino (сreek nameless/Nadezhdinsky, R. Daldykan, R. Ambarnaya) by oil products, phenols, easily oxidizable and hard to oxidize organic matter (COD, PO and BOD ₅), suspended solids, inorganic salts and heavy metals with excess in MPS (including for fishery) as well as a temperature rise in waters of nameless сreek nearby Norilsk Heat & Power Plant 3 were revealed. Contamination of the surface water decreases downstream in ascending order: nameless сreek - Daldykan River - Ambarnaya River. The occurrence of petrochemical products, phenols and organic substances in the surface waters in two months after that spill is obviously due to their diffusion from the river bottom sediments, which accumulated a considerable amount of heavy fractions of diesel fuel after the accident. Increased concentrations of Ca, Cu, Zn, Mn, Co and Ni in waters of investigated tributaries of Lake Pyasino are not directly related to the accident; it results from the general technogeneous pollution of the territory and the increased geochemical background for the elements considered. Water contamination by oil products and phenols in the studied sections of Lake Pyasino (its central and northern parts) and R. Pyasino was not detected. However, concentrations of Pb exceeded MAP and Cd was present in the water, probably, due to accumulated pollutants in previous years.

For the first time, the bacterial composition of water and sediments in Lake Pyasino and adjacent rivers was studied by next-generation sequencing. On the river sections exposed to diesel spillage in May 2020, no hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria were found. The Daldykan and Ambarnaya rivers, located downstream of the spill site, were dominated by bacteria that oxidize sulfur and heavy metals. At the same time, these bacteria were not found in Lake Pyasino which was dominated by small cyanobacteria. Thus, the composition of bacteria in the water and sediments of the Norilsk-Pyasino lake-river system corresponds to the technogenic impact to which it is exposed, and also demonstrates the buffer properties of Lake Pyasino on the way of water flow into the Kara Sea.

The assessment of species composition, abundance, biomass, and pigment characteristics of phytoperiphyton and phytoplankton of Lake Pyasino, its tributaries (Bezymyannyi stream, the Daldykan, Ambarnaya, and Norilskaya rivers), and the head of the Pyasina river was carried out after man-made accident - diesel fuel spill in vicinity of the city of Norilsk in May 2020. Significant decline of biomass and changes in species composition of phytoperiphyton after water contamination by fuel was revealed near the spillage site only (in the Daldykan river and in the Ambarnaya river downstream the Daldykan mouth). Downstream, in the Ambarnaya mouth zone, as a response to the release of a large amount of nutrients during the decomposition of oil products and dead organisms, as well as mechanical cleaning of the bank line, in the water column there was a massive growth of diatom and green algae ( Tabularia tabulata , Spirogyra sp.) and indicators of organic pollution (Euglenophyceae and Cryptophyceae) appeared. Significant changes in the plankton of Lake Pyasino and river Pyasina in comparison with the data obtained in the second half of the XX century (i. e., long before the accident) were not found. Species composition and quantitative features as well as amount and ratio of pigments characterized phytoplankton and phytoperiphyton of Lake Pyasino and the Pyasina river as normally functioning freshwater community of oligotrophic waters. All this indicates the absence of a negative impact of the accidental oil spillage on the ecosystem of Lake Pyasino and the Pyasina river.

The large Norilsk expedition of the SB RAS at the beginning of August, 2 months after the spill of 20 thousand tons of diesel fuel into the Bezymyanny stream, which took it out to the Daldykan and Ambarnaya rivers, took samples of net zooplankton at 13 stations, located in both sections of these rivers and Lake Pyasino with the outflow of the Pyasina River. Comparative analysis of the species composition, abundance, biomass and saprobity index of zooplankton at these stations has been carried out. The productions of rotifer and crustacean zooplankton and potential production of planktivorous fish in Lake Pyasino have been calculated. Based on the state of zooplankton, a gradual improvement in water quality has been observed from river areas exposed to the oil products to the northern part of the lake and the River Pyasina outflow. The low abundance and biomass of zooplankton in the lake (43800 ± 17550 ind./m³, 112.8 ± 26.2 mg/m³, on average) due to the dominance of rotifers ( Ploesoma truncatum (Levander), Bipalpus hudsoni (Imhof), Conochilus unicornis Rousselet) resulted in low values of zooplankton production and potential production of planktivorous fish (0.85 kg/ha per season).