MICROELEMENT AND STABLE ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF SNOWPACK IN THE KATUNSKY BIOSPHERE RESERVE (ALTAI REPUBLIC)

Abstract

The present-day regional level of various trace elements contents together with characteristics of isotopic composition was for the first time estimated in seasonal snow cover of Altai. As a background territory, the State Nature Biosphere reserve «Katunsky» had been chosen. This reserve is included into the World network of biosphere reserves under the UNESCO Program «Man and biosphere». The route snow survey had been carried out at the end of February 2014 since this is a period of maximum snow accumulation. The snow survey involved evaluation of snow storages, stratigraphic analysis of the snow cover, and layer-by-layer snow sampling for analysis of its trace element and isotopic compositions. Isotopic and stratigraphic analysis of visually selected layers of the snow cover revealed substantial variation in the values of δ18O and δD (the maximum difference between layers was 120.1 and 15.3 ‰, respectively), while dexc changed within the range from 5.6 to 16.6 ‰. The weighted-mean values of the snowpack isotopic composition are the following: δ 18 O = −24.9 and δD = −188.9 ‰, and the isotopic ratio of oxygen and deuterium is described by the equation δD = 8,3δ 18 О + 18.9. The analysis of microelement composition of the snow samples made with the use of the crustal enrichment factor (EFc) and correlation matrix allowed determination of elements (Ba, Be, V, Co, Li, Mn, Ni, Sr, Tl, Th, U и Cs) released into the atmosphere above the territory under investigation mainly with particles of fly ash, in which the ratio of elements corresponds to the regional natural sources – soils and underlying rocks. It was shown that the main part of elements Ag, As, Bi, Cu, Mo, Sb, Zn come preferably from anthropogenic sources which are non-ferrous metallurgy enterprises of East Kazakhstan and pits of operating and abandoned mines of Rudny Altai.