Elements-indicators of oil refineries impact in the components of adjacent ecosystems

Abstract

This paper discusses differences in chemical elements concentration by the components of an ecosystem exposed to the refinery, relative to the territory taken as the background. The study was conducted in the Antipinsky Oil Refinery location area, the territory of the Tyumen Federal Reserve was considered as the background. The change in the elemental composition of the soil, bedding, grass stand, and birch leaves has been studied. The study was carried out by instrumental neutron activation and atomic absorption analysis methods. For all considered components of ecosystems, the patterns of the spatial distribution of elements with respect to refinery were analyzed (both to remote and to cardinal directions). The change in the associations of chemical elements in technogenic conditions was studied. The obtained results were compared with the clarke and literature data, on the basis of which the background status of the natural territory was confirmed, and low pollution of the technogenic region was revealed. According to the results, an elevated content of many of the studied chemical elements in the upper soil horizon was found. For most of them, a change in the distribution over the profile was recorded. The greatest pollution among the studied objects is characteristic of birch leaves. The spatial distribution of pollution is different for the components considered, but is consistent with the predominant wind direction. In the studied components of the technogenic ecosystem, an accumulation of elements specific to the oil refining industry was found: Br, Sb, La, Tb, Yb, Ce, As, Hg, Zn, Co. In all considered components of the technogenic ecosystem a violation of correlations and the presence of specific associations were recorded.