Air Pollution of Nature Reserves Near Cities in Russia
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Hindawi Scientifica Volume 2020, Article ID 9148416, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/9148416 Research Article Air Pollution of Nature Reserves near Cities in Russia Aleksei Kholodov 1 and Kirill Golokhvast 2,3,4 1Far East Geological Institute, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia 2Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia 3N. I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, Saint-Petersburg, Russia 4Pacific Geographical Institute, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia Correspondence should be addressed to Kirill Golokhvast; [email protected] Received 28 March 2020; Accepted 20 May 2020; Published 4 June 2020 Academic Editor: Jos´e A. Castro Copyright © 2020 Aleksei Kholodov and Kirill Golokhvast. &is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Today, protected natural areas cover about 15% of the Earth’s land. &ese areas by definition are supposed to be free of pollution; they nevertheless suffer from the effects of aerial transport of anthropogenic polluting substances. In this study, we evaluated the impact of settlements on protected natural areas to determine the optimal distance beyond which the anthropogenic influence would be minimal. For this purpose, we analyzed the particle size distribution and the content of metals in fresh snow samples collected in the Bastak Nature Reserve and the neighboring Birobidzhan city (Russian Federation). Both sites contained comparable proportions of PM10 and contents of heavy metals, which points to the transportation of air pollutants from the city to the reserve. &e results of the analysis were summarized and compared with the available data on other nature reserves and nearby populated localities. Based on the research data, pollutant emissions should be decreased for cities that are closer than 50 km to nature reserves. Moreover, authorities should take into consideration atmospheric factors and distance to the nearest settlement when establishing new protected natural areas. 1. Introduction spatial distribution characteristics of atmospheric partic- ulate matter, especially in areas suffering from significant Air pollution is a global problem as pollutants can be environmental challenges [7]. transported over long distances with the wind [1]. One of As particulate matter travels large distances it also the more complex components of air polluting substances impacts protected natural areas. Protected areas are defined is particulate matter (PM), which is a mixture of multiple as designated geographical spaces, recognized, dedicated, chemicals usually formed through chemical and physical and managed, through legal or other effective means, to transformations [2]. &e sources of PM may be natural, achieve the long-term conservation of nature with asso- such as weathering of rocks, forest fires, or the results of ciated ecosystem services and cultural values [8]. human activities, such as road traffic emissions, combus- According to the World Database on Protected Areas tion of fuels, and emissions from industrial and agricultural (WDPA), there were 238,563 designated protected areas enterprises [3]. Generally, the characteristics of airborne worldwide in 2018 [9]. Most areas are on land, collectively PM depend on their source, origin, and weather condition protecting over 20 million km2, equivalent to 14.9% of the in a geographical area. However, particles with the aero- Earth’s land surface. dynamic diameter less than 10 μm (PM10) can be trans- In Russian Federation, the total area of protected natural ferred to distances up to tens of thousands kilometers areas is steadily increasing in recent years: from 2.06 mln 2 2 crossing national borders [4, 5]. Fine particles (PM2.5) are km in 2015 to 2.37 mln km in 2018 (13.9% of the total capable of travelling larger distances and staying in the air country’s area) [10, 11]. According to another source, the longer [6]. &ere are studies dedicated to temporal and total area of protected land reaches 1,641,401 km2 (9.73% of 2 Scientifica the country’s area [12], but this discrepancy is due to the from 1 m2 area into 3-liter plastic containers prewashed difference in methodologies and datasets used in calculation. with distilled water. Only the top layer of fresh snow was Out of the total of 11.8 thousand protected areas in Russia, collected during or immediately after the snowfall to there are five categories of Federal protected areas: state exclude the secondary pollution of settled snow. &e nature reserves (or zapovedniks), national parks, natural samples were collected in three series at ten sampling parks, state nature-sanctuaries, and natural landmarks [13]. points: five in Birobidzhan city (at November 25, 2013; Among these, state nature reserves are the largest category in February 2, 2014; and February 28, 2014) and five in the terms of area. In 2018, there were 110 state nature reserves Bastak Nature Reserve (at November 20, 2013; January 29, with a total area of 345 thousand km2 in Russian Federation 2014; and February 28, 2014). Snow sampling points in the [11]. city were located near major pollution sources (main Protected natural areas by definition are established to be roads, heat and power plant, thermoelectric plant–points free of man-caused activities and, hence, of pollution. &ey G1-G4), and a reference point was located in the local provide ecosystem benefits for human health and climate forest (point G5). In the Bastak Nature Reserve, only one change adaptation [14]. However, studies show that in- sample point was located near the highway (B1), while creased concentrations of air pollutants in world’s natural other points were located at a considerable distance from parks raise serious concern [15–18]. In developed countries, pollution sources. &e location of sampling points is there are national programs for monitoring atmospheric shown in Figure 1. pollution in nature parks (for example, the air quality Particle size distribution of suspended particles in melted monitoring program of the US National Park Service: snow was measured using the Analysette 22 NanoTec plus https://www.nps.gov/subjects/air/air-monitoring.htm). laser particle sizer (Fritsch GmbH, Germany) with Fritch Snow precipitation is often used to assess the environ- MaS software. &e samples (60 ml) were diluted with 150 ml mental air pollution [19]. Snowflakes absorb more air pol- of distilled water before the analysis. &e measurements lutants than rain drops due to their larger surface area and were run at the settings of quartz/water at 20°C. &e de- slower deposition speed [20]. Also, snow sampling may be tection range was 0.008–2000 μm. considered easier way to assess the ambient air pollution in &e content of metals was measured using the Element remote areas of nature reserves compared to installing and XR high-resolution mass spectrometer (&ermo Fisher maintaining stationary air samplers. Various techniques are Scientific, USA). &e liquid samples were stored at a tem- applied to studying the particles in melted snow, including perature of 4°C and analyzed according to the method TsV particle size analysis, mass spectrometry, and electron mi- 3.18.05–2005 (ZAO Centr Issledovania i Kontrolya vody, croscopy to name a few [21], with some methods capable of Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation). characterizing particles as fine as 10 nm [22]. &e results were compared by one-way analysis of In this study we evaluated the impact of settlements on variance using the pairwise multiple comparison procedures protected natural areas to determine the optimal distance (the Holm-Sidak method) or Dunnett’s Multiple Compar- beyond which the anthropogenic influence would be min- isons to a control and Student’s unpaired t-test with Welch’s imal. For this purpose we analyzed the particulate matter in correction for unequal variances. &e results of metal fresh snow samples collected in the Bastak Nature Reserve content analysis are presented as means ± SE. P values of and the neighboring Birobidzhan city (Russian Federation) <0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. and compared the results with available data on other nature reserves and nearby populated localities. 3. Results 2. Materials and Methods Similar to our previous research [26], we classified all sus- pended particles into seven groups: (1) 0.1–1 μm (PM1), (2) &e Bastak Nature Reserve, with the total area of approxi- 1–10 μm (PM10), (3) 10–50 μm, (4) 50–100 μm, (5) mately 92 hectares, was founded in 1997 to protect the 100–400 μm, (6) 400–700 μm, and (7) ≥ 700 μm. Particles in ecosystems of the Northern Amur River region (&e Jewish melted snow samples collected during this study were di- Autonomous Oblast, Russian Federation). Bastak mainly vided into these groups during the particle size analysis includes pine and linden forests with rich flora and fauna. (Tables 1 and 2, Figures 2 and 3). &is is the only specially protected natural area of Federal According to our results (Table 1, Figure 2), ambient air importance in the region. &e reserve is located 15 km north in Birobidzhan city contains a significant percentage of of Birobidzhan city. particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm, po- Birobidzhan is the administrative, economic, and cul- tentially hazardous to human health, mainly, the respiratory tural center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. It is a me- tract [27]. As previously shown, many urban air particles dium-size city with the total area of 150 km2 and a with aerodynamic diameter of approximately 2.5–5 μm are population of 73 thousand people. Birobidzhan is an in- the products of motor vehicle exhaust—soot, ashes, and dustrial city with about 100 stationary air pollution sources metal-containing particles [28, 29]. &e highest proportion and an intensive transport network that affects the envi- of PM10 (64.9%) was observed in vicinity of the local thermal ronment [23, 24].