Variations in Different Compounds in Volga Water, Suspension, and Bottom Sediments in the Summer of 2009 I
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226839859 Hydrocarbons in bottom sediments of the marginal filter of the Volga River Article in Doklady Earth Sciences · January 2006 DOI: 10.1134/S1028334X06010247 CITATIONS READS 8 37 2 authors, including: Inna Abramovna Nemirovskaya P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology 167 PUBLICATIONS 465 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Геолого-геохимические исследования природных и антропогенных процессов в воде, взвесях и донных осадках морских акваторий, в том числе в окраинных районах Мирового океана View project All content following this page was uploaded by Inna Abramovna Nemirovskaya on 12 February 2016. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. 2 ISSN 00978078, Water Resources, 2012, Vol. 39, No. 5 pp. 533–545. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2012. 2 Original Russian Text © I.A. Nemirovskaya, 2012, published in Vodnye Resursy, 2012, Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 496–509. WATER QUALITY AND PROTECTION: ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS Variations in Different Compounds in Volga Water, Suspension, and Bottom Sediments in the Summer of 2009 I. A. Nemirovskaya Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovskii prosp. 36, Moscow, 117851 Russia Email: [email protected] Received September 29, 2010 Abstract—Studies of water, suspension, and sediments of the Volga R. (from Konakovo Town to the delta) showed that at the confluence with tributaries, diffusion and dilution play the major role. Changes in conduc tivity, BOD5, pH, suspension, chlorophyll a, dissolved and organic carbon, lipids, and hydrocarbons take place mostly under the effect of natural processes. Typical features in the case of summer lowwater period are low chlorophyll a, suspension, and BOD5. The accumulation of pollutants takes place in bottom sedi ments because of an increase in the share of Corg, and hydrocarbons have a petroleum and pyrogenic compo sition. Keywords: drainage basin, mixing zone, pollution, suspension, sediments, mineralization, BOD5, chloro phyll a, hydrocarbons. DOI: 10.1134/S0097807812030062 INTRODUCTION period. The tasks of the study were to examine the Volga drainage basin is the largest in Russia natural, main geochemical, hydrochemical, and hydrophysi industrial, and social complex. In this territory, cal processes in Volga watersheds; to study the mixing accounting for 8% of the area of European Russia, zones of the Volga and its tributaries (upstream of the 426 towns and cities are situated; 60 million lives, confluence, at the confluence, and at a site down including about 45 million of urban dwellers; 45% of stream of it where water mixing is complete); to ana industrial and 50% of agricultural production is pro lyze the distribution of major characteristics over flow duced. This is practically half of the country in terms depth; and to assess the environmental stat of the of population, industry, and agriculture. Volga. The expedition covered 3100 km and carried out 84 stations. The Volga basin has experienced much greater adverse impact of the accelerated, environmentally ill considered process of industrialization and urbaniza METHODS OF STUDIES tion in the 1930s–1940s, as well as in the period of cre ation of the powerful military industrial base of the Suspensions were isolated from surface water by Soviet Union [16]. The construction of the Volga nuclear filters (0.45 µm) under suction at 0.4 atm with chain of hydropower plants has transformed the main the aim to determine their concentrations (gravimet Russian waterway into a chain of huge reservoirs with ric) and composition (with the use of a scanning elec extremely slow flow velocity and intense development tion microscope at JSMU31 (Jeol, Japan) and by of eutrophication [4]. fiberglass filters GF/F (0.7–1.2 µm) for studying Subject to high anthropogenic load, the Volga basin organic compounds, including Corg, lipids, hydrocar has become most environmentally neglected in Russia bons (HC), chlorophyll (Chl a). Moreover, the con [18]. The discharge of pollutants into the Gorki and centration of suspension was determined from the Cheboksary reservoirs alone in 2000–2003 was 100– extinction of light in surface and deep waters with the 4000 thousand t/year [9]. use of a transparency meter PUMA, developed in From June 26 to July 24, 2009, an expedition was Oceanic Optics Laboratory, IO RAS [2]. Bottom sed carried out onboard Valaam 1 research vessel from iment (BS) samples were taken by a dredger and a Konakovo town to Astrakhan town and in Volga delta stratometer. branches (Fig. 1). The expedition was organized by The electric conductivity and temperature were Shirshov Institute of Oceanology RAS (IO) and Water determined by EKSPER0014 device with a sound, Problems Institute RAS (WPI RAS). The objective of which gives continuous information in surface sam the expedition was to carry out multidisciplinary stud ples and along the depth (down to 18 m). The coordi ies of Volga environment during summer lowwater nates of sample sites were determined with the help of 533 534 NEMIROVSKAYA Kirov Perm Kostroma Yaroslavl Tver Ivanovo Izhevsk IoshkarOla Konakovo Vladimir Cheboksary Moskva Nizhni Novgorod Kazan a a am k K Ufa Ryazan O Tula Саранск Ul'yanovsk Penza Orel Samara Tambov Saratov Volgograd Astrakhan Fig. 1. Schematic map of the expedition. GPS navigator (Garmin) accurate to 4 m. The hydro as the difference between oxygen concentrations chemical determinations included pH (by potentio before and after the incubation. metric method), oxygen (iodometric method, titra Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was determined tion), BOD5 (biochemical oxygen demand after five with a totalcarbon analyzer TOCVCh (Shumadzu, day incubation) [5]. The value of BOD5 was evaluated Japan). Particulate Corg (POC) and BS was deter WATER RESOURCES Vol. 39 No. 5 2012 VARIATIONS IN DIFFERENT COMPOUNDS IN VOLGA WATER, SUSPENSION 535 mined by dry combustion method in AN7529 ana mS/cm lyzer (Russia) [14]; lipids and HCs were determined by IRspectrometry [19] in IRAffinity1 device (Shi 450 madzu, Japan); the concentration and composition of 400 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were deter 350 mined with the help of highefficiency liquid chroma 300 tography [19] with the help of Milikhrom02 device 250 (Ekonova, Russia); Chl a was determined by fluores 200 150 cent method with the help of Trilogy device (Turner, 100 USA). The methods are described in detail in [2, 14, 50 19, 26, 31, 34]. 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 km RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Fig. 2. Variations in the electric conductivity of surface The collected data show that the electric conduc water in the Volga R. from Konakovo T. to Astrakhan C. tivity of surface Volga water gradually increased south ward down to Astrakhan (Fig. 2). This characteristic varied within 190–210 mS/cm. Downstream of Sura agreement with variations in other hydrochemical R. inflow, its values abruptly rose to 250 mS/cm and characteristics [5]. The electric conductivity in the further tended to increase down to the delta head. An Oka is 2.2 times higher than in the Volga because of the abrupt peak in electric conductivity was recorded at greater area of ploughlands and more powerful source Kama mouth, where its values were 50 mS/cm higher of mineral substances. Moreover, upstream of this site, than the background Volga values. The electric con Gorki Reservoir dam is situated, trapping mineral ductance increased to 300 mS/cm at Tolyatti, to 350 at matter runoff and discharging cold water from bottom Saratov, and to 400 at Kamyshin, and reached their horizons. Therefore, water temperature in the Oka is maximal value of 450 mS/cm at Astrakhan. Thus, the 0.9°С higher than in the Volga because the basin of the electric conductance increased more than twofold former lies further to the south. The length of the mix from the Upper Volga to its mouth. These data coin ing zone here reaches 10 km (Table 1). cide with the distribution of chloride concentration, Water temperature in the Kama near its confluence which varied from 6.3 mg/l in Upper Volga water to with the Volga is slightly (0.2°С) lower and its electric 31.6 mg/l in Astrakhan [5] because of variations in conductivity is 68 mS/cm2 higher than those in the subsoil water mineralization [18] and the input of aero Volga. The effect of Kama water in the Volga can be sols from arid regions of Russia. Because of this, in Volga seen within 18 km from their confluence. Water in the delta, where those conditions remained practically rivers of Bol’shoi Irgyz and Kamyshin also has higher invariable, the values varied within 440–445 mS/cm. mineralization than in the Volga, though to a lesser The temperature of surface Volga water along the extent than in the Oka and Kama. The water of the lat entire expedition route increased by more than 7°С. ter is 0.5 and 0.4°С lower than in the Kama, respectively. Clearly, the low temperatures are typical of the Upper The mixing zones are much shorter (1 and 2.7 km, Volga segment from Konakovo Town to Tutaev Town respectively). At the confluence of the Volga and (17–18°С). Further to Tolyatti, the temperature rose Kurdyum, complete water mixing and dilution took to 19–21°С. Downstream of Saratov HPP dam, the place immediately at the Kurdyum mouth because of temperature abruptly dropped by almost 3°С, seem its low flow. ingly because of water discharge from cold bottom The values of pH in surface water varied from 7.4 to horizons and because of a shorttime cooling. The 8.6. Lower values were recorded in the Upper Volga temperature increased near Saratov and reached its (7.4–7.6), while higher, in the Middle and Lower maximum (24.2°С) near Astrakhan.