AMAP Report 2002:2 Jhe Second AMAP International Symposium on Environmental Pollution of the A rctic
The Second AMAP International Symposium on Environmental Pollution of the Arctic: Extended Abstracts. Rovaniemi, Finland. October 1-4,2002. AMAP Report 2002:2 Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. October 2002 ISBN 82-7971-021-3 Available as an electronic document on the AMAP website: www.amap.no
AM AP Report 2002:2 The Second AM AP International Symposium on Environmental Pollution of the A rctic Extended abstracts Rovaniem i, Finland. O ctober 1-4, 2002
Second AMAP International Symposium on Environmental Pollution of the Arctic. Rovaniemi, 1-4 October 2002 Heavy metals of lake sediments of Northeast Fennoscandia Vladimir Dauvalter Institute o f the North Industrial Ecology Problems (INEP), Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy o f Sciences, 14 Fersman St., 184200 Apatity, Murmansk region, Russia Introduction Problems of a freshwater pollution by heavy metals attract great interest since heavy metals are highly toxic (Forstner and Wittmann, 1979). Non-ferrous metallurgical works - "Pechenganickel" and "Severonickel" Companies processing with high-s Ni-Cu ores of Norilsk deposits are the main pollution sources in the investigated region, which is one of the most polluted in the world. The emissions include many heavy metals. A considerable part of these heavy metals precipitated on watersheds are buried in the lake sediments. The aim of this work is to investigate heavy metals distribution in lake sediments of border areas between Finland, Norway and Russia. Such studies are needed to carry out creating of criteria of freshwater ecosystem state. Following aspects were considered: 1) values of background concentrations of heavy metals in the sediments; 2) vertical distributions of heavy metals concentrations; 3) regional distribution of the concentrations in surficial sediments. Materials and Methods The investigations were carried out in the framework of Russia-Norway and Russia-Finland collaborations. Between 1989 and 2001 sediments from more than 150 lakes of the Kola Peninsula and border area between Russia, Norway and Finland were collected from the deepest parts of lakes (accumulation areas) with a gravity corer (Skogheim, 1979). The area close to "Pechenganickel" Company was most studied. As a rule, the uppermost sediments (from 0 to 1 cm) were used to determine anthropogenic loads and the lowest layers (typically between 20 and 30 cm) to define background concentrations. Concentrations of Ni, Cu, Co, Zn, Cd, Pb in the lake sediments were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry at the chemical laboratory of INEP (Dauvalter, 1994). Contents of Hg were determined utilizing cold vapour atomic absorption at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway. i Results and Conclusions Average background values and standard deviations (in parentheses) of heavy metals for sediments of more than 100 lakes of the Kola Peninsula were found to be following (in xg/g dry substance): Ni - 34.5 (23.6), Cu - 45.3 (39.6), Co - 15.6 (13.0), Zn - 108.2 (79.6), Cd - 0.83 (0.80), Pb - 6.7 (8.0), Hg - 0.073 (0.044). Changes in the vertical distributions of heavy metals in sediments by increasing concentrations towards sediment surface are evidence for the lakes within a distance of 40 km from the smelters. This pattern is particularly typical for Ni, Cu, Zn and Co as for the predominated pollutant of this area, emitted by Pechenganickel Company (Fig.). Lead and Mn show also this pattern of the vertical distribution. Sediment core dating was not performed on the sediments; therefore no direct estimate of sedimentation rate could be derived. Intensive increase of Pechenganickel Company emissions began in 1972 (Kryuchkov and Makarova, 1989) and the considerable increasing heavy metal concentrations were related at a depth of 6 cm (Fig.). The calculated sedimentation rate is estimated approximately 3 mm/year, that coincides with the earlier expressed rate of sedimentation in the Kuetsjarvi lake (Dau- P - M 2 8
Second AMAP International Symposium on Environmental Pollution of the Arctic. Rovaniemi, 1-4 October 2002 valter, 1994). Concentrations, (ig^g 500 1000 1500 2000 Concentrations, Jig/g 50 100 150 200 ---- ---- N i C u - -A- - M n ---- ---- Z n Co - -A- - Pb Figure. Distribution of heavy metal concentrations in sediment core of the Kuetsjarvi lake located at distance 5 km from the Pechenganickel smelters. The atmospheric emissions of Ni, Cu, Co, Cd and Hg from the smelters and waste waters from tailing dams and minings are likely the main sources of increased concentrations for these elements observed in recent lake sediments within a distance of 40 km from the smelters. The lakes on the Russian side were as a rule well buffered with neutral ph. This favours accumulation of mobile elements like Ni in the sediments (Hakanson and Jansson, 1983). The prevailing southwestern winds are distributing the pollution plume mainly in a northeastern direction leaving in lakes more than 20 km southwest of Nickel almost unaffected. The atmospheric depositions of these elements are low elsewhere in northern Scandinavia (Ruhling et al., 1987), and only little impact in recent sediments has been detected (Rognerud and Fjeld, 1993; Rekolainen et al., 1986; Johanson, 1989; Verta et al., 1989). The variations of Ni and Cu concentrations with distance from the Pechenganickel Company can be expected by the following equations: Nised=18799 L'1'604, (F=173.14, r=-0.853, p=0.0001, n=67) Cused=5161 L'1188, (F=87.78, r=-0.758, p=0.0001, n=67), where Nised and Cused - the sediment concentrations of Ni and Cu ( xg/g dry wt.); L - the distance from the smelters (km), F - the Fisher's criterion, r - the correlation coefficient, p - the probability that the observed correlation is due to chance, n - the number of the samples. There is no indication in the sediments of increased depositions of Pb caused by atmospheric emissions from the smelters. Lead showed a different pattern from the other heavy metals. An increase in the concentrations from east to west, suggesting that the principal sources of Pb were from eastern Norway. The main source of Pb is probably the general increase in contamination of Pb in the atmosphere of the northern hemisphere due to the consumption of gasoline with tetra-ethyl Pb (Norton et al., 1990). The positive correlations of Ni, Cu, Co, Cd, and Hg concentrations with Mn and Fe contents (r=0.44-0.65, p=0.01) indicate that migration processes of these heavy metals in the lake sediments are connected with hydroxides and oxides of Fe and Mn. Therefore, the atmospheric emissions of Ni, Cu, Co, Cd and Hg of the Pechenganickel Company are the main sources of increased concentrations for these elements within a distance of 40 km from the smelters. There is no indication in the sediments of increased deposition of Pb caused by the atmos- P -M 2 8
Second AMAP International Symposium on Environmental Pollution of the Arctic. Rovaniemi, 1-4 October 2002 pheric emissions of the smelters. The main source of Pb is likely the consumption of gasoline with tetra-ethyl Pb. Acknowledgements The investigations were supported by the Russian Foundation of Fundamental Investigations, Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway, and the Lapland Water and Environmental District (LWED), Rovaniemi, Finland. The author thanks Prof. T.I. Moiseenko (INEP), Dr S. Rognerud and Dr. T.S. Traaen (NIVA), Dr. O. Sandman (National Board of Waters and Environment, Mikkeli, Finland), Dr. K. Kinnunen, Mrs. M. Nenonen, Ms. O. Mahonen (LWED) for useful advice in the investigation methods, as well as the co-workers from INEP, NIVA, LWED, and particularly Dr. I. Rodyushkin, Dr. L. Kudryavtseva, Mr. Y. Tereshko (INEP), Mr. M. Salminen (LWED) for their assistance with the analyses and the field work. Useful advices and comments concerning the investigations by Prof. L. Hakanson (Uppsala University, Sweden), Prof. I. Renberg (Umea University, Sweden) and Prof. S.A. Norton (University of Maine, U.S.A.) are acknowledged with many thanks. References Dauvalter V. 1994. Heavy metals in lake sediments of the Kola Peninsula, Russia. Sci. Tot. Environ., 158: 51-61. ForstnerU. and Wittmann G.T.W. 1979. Metal Pollution in the Aquatic Environment. Springer-Vcrlag, Berlin. 210 p. Hakanson L. and Jansson M. 1983. Principles of Lake Sedimentology, Springer Verlag. 316 p. Johanson K. 1989. Metals in sediment of lakes in northern Sweden. Wat. Air Soil Pollut. 47:441-457. Kryuchkov V. and Makarova T. 1989. Aerotechnogenic impact on the Kola North ecosystem, Apatity. 96 p. Norton S.A., Dillon P.J., Evans R.D., Mierle G. and Kahl J.S. 1990. The history of atmospheric deposition of Cd, Hg and Pb in North America: Evidence from lake and peat bog sediments. In: S.E. Lindberg, A.L. Page and S.A. Norton (Eds.): Sources, Deposition and Capony Interactions. Ш, Acidic Precipitation. Springer-Verlag, N.Y. P. 73-101. Ruhling A., Rasmussen L., Pilegaard K., Makinen A. and Steinnes E. 1987. Survey of Atmospheric Heavy Metal Deposition. Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen. Rekolainen S., Verta M. and Liehu A. 1986. The effect of airborne mercury and peatland drainage on sediment mercury content in some Finnish Forest lakes. Helsinki, National Board of Water, 65: 11-21. Rognerud S. and Fjeld E. 1993. Regional survey ofheavy metals in lake sediments in Norway. AMBIO, 22:206-212. Skogheim O.K. 1979. Rapport fra Arungenprosjektet. Nr. 2. AS-NLN. Verta М., Tolonen K. and Simola H. 1989. History ofheavy metal pollution in Finland as recorded by lake sediments. Sci. Tot. Environ. 87/88: 1-18. P -M 2 8