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Present status of water chemistry and acidification under nonpoint sources of pollution across European Russia and West Siberia

Moiseenko, TI; Dinu, MI; Gashkina, NA; Jones, V; Khoroshavin, VY; Kremleva, TA; (2018) Present status of water chemistry and acidification under nonpoint sources of pollution across European Russia and West Siberia. Environmental Research Letters , 13 (10) 10.1088/1748-9326/aae268. Green open access

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Abstract

Acidic deposition has caused severe surface water acidification in Europe and North America, but surface water acidification has not been systematically studied in Russia. Here we present the first detailed study on regional surface water acidification in European Russia (ER) and Western Siberia (WS) based on a survey of 367 lakes in a transect from the tundra to the steppe, which were investigated to explore the status and mechanism of surface water acidification. The variability of water chemistry is documented and discussed. High pH and acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC) were observed for lakes in the southern region, indicating that surface water acidification does not occur here. Anthropogenic acidification occurs in the humid areas of both regions, being observed in 4.4% of ER and 8.2% of WS lakes. These tundra and taiga lakes are characterized by high transparency, low pH, and ANC with a high concentration of strong acid anions. The main factor leading to acidification in the ER lakes is sulfur emission from metal smelters whilst that in WS is acidification, likely associated with gas burning by oil production facilities. In the ER acid lakes, SO42- is dominant; this is in contrast to WS, where NO3- and Cl- are dominate. The influence of strong technogenic acids on the structure of organic components and their possibility to form a proton is discussed. The phenomenon of the increase in water acidification by organic acids and strong acids is explained. These results clearly show the effect of a number of factors that strengthen the acidity of water. Differences in the chemical composition of lakes of both regions, as well as differentiation by their acid properties, were statistically proved. Results of our research indicate the need to reduce emissions of acidic gases into the atmosphere.

Type: Article
Title: Present status of water chemistry and acidification under nonpoint sources of pollution across European Russia and West Siberia
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aae268
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae268
Language: English
Additional information: Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10062113
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