Effect of oil pollution on the ecological condition of soils and bottom sediments of the arctic region (Yakutia)

Oil and petroleum products are known to be among the most widespread soil pollutants. The risk of emergencies is sure to increase greatly in conditions of abnormally low temperatures. Oil and oil products are not only toxic to the environment, but can also have a negative impact on the state of the permafrost zone, accelerating the processes of permafrost degradation. The goal of the research was to study the soils and bottom sediments for oil pollution in the Arctic region of Yakutia. The research was carried out with using the complex of geochemical and microbiological methods of analysis. It had shown that at present oil pollution was mainly concentrated on the objects bearing a high technogenic load. However, some migration of hydrocarbons was observed with melt, seasonal melt and rainwaters, as a result of which the natural background of the nearby territories became technogenic character. In the Arctic conditions for the first time according to the obtained data on geochemical and microbiological studies oxidative destruction of oil pollutants in soil occurred mainly under the influence of physic and chemical environmental factors, not by microbial oxidation. Sluggish processes of mineralization of organic residues and the transformation of oil pollutants by the type of putrefaction led to the colonization of oilpolluted soils of the Arctic with putrefying and pathogenic microorganisms. The purpose of further research will be studying the possibility of intensification of soil remediation processes of technologically disturbed soils at abnormally low temperatures.