Features of Transformation of Oil-contaminated Soils in Arctic Region

Abstract

A study of the comparative characteristic of Yakutia´s frozen soils ability to remediation, when contaminated with oil, has been carried out. The samples of permafrost soils from the territories of the the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), exposed to industrial pollution by oil and its products, with old periods of pollution (10 ÷ 12 years) were examined. Remediation was not carried out anywhere. In the soils of the western part of Yakutia, despite a high residual level of pollution (8.58%), signs of oxidative destruction of petroleum hydrocarbons are clearly visible (high content of resinous components (61.3%)), and almost complete transformation of acyclic hydrocarbons. In arctic soils, self-remediation processes occur at a significantly slower pace. In these soils the content of hydrocarbon fractions is still high (60.3-64.9%). There is no selectivity in the transformation processes of individual acyclic hydrocarbons. This suggests that the oxidative destruction of oil pollution in Arctic soils is mainly influenced by physical and chemical environmental factors, rather than microbiological oxidation. The low microbiological activity of hydrocarbon-oxidizing microorganisms in the Arctic soils indicates the need to develop special remediation measures to clean the soil from oil pollution