Geoecology of the Western Arctic Shelf of Russia

Environmental bottom investigations of the Arctic Shelf are to determine the anthropogenic component and the degree of its impact to biota in the course of the sedimentation process. Hereby, the main focus is on analysis of sources of supply, pathways of migration, mechanisms of transformation and accumulation of pollutants as well as on the selection of the criteria of assessment of the bottom environment at different levels. Three groups of pollutant sources are distinguished: exogenic, endogenic and aquapolytechogenic. This volume reports on multidisciplinary environmental investigations carried out by SIA Sevmorgeologia in the Western part of Arctic through 1991-2010, with more than 1100 complex stations. A variety of geochemical parameters and criteria were monitored to enhance the existing methods of assessment including the background concentrations of major groups of contaminants (chlororganic compounds, heavy metals, phenols, HC, PAH, SSAS, radionuclides) in water and sediments, calculated for various levels of complexity of geological objects (transregional - for Barents Sea, regional - for Pechora and White Seas, St. Anna Trough, local - for Shtockman and Prirazlomnoe fields, mouse of Pechora, Ob, Enisej Rivers, and special polygon-dumpsites of nuclides).