Comprehensive Analysis of Mercury Content in Environmental Subsystems of the Crimean Peninsula

• Published in: Theoretical foundations of chemical engineering Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 638 - 647
• Main Authors: Evstafeva, E. V., Bogdanova, A. M., Evstafeva, I. A., Makarova, A. S., Meshalkin, V. P., Baranovskaya, N. V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.07.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural wastes; Biosphere; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Monitoring; Natural resources; Poplar; Residential areas; Salt lakes; Seawater; Sediments; Soils; Subsystems; Crimea; bioindicator; municipal solid waste; ecosystem; Republic of Crimea; mercury
• ISSN: 0040-5795; 1608-3431
• DOI: 10.1134/S0040579521040242

A systematic analysis of the mercury content in various subsystems of the environment of the Crimean Peninsula has been carried out which includes (1) an assessment of the presence of natural geochemical and anthropogenic sources of mercury input into the subsystems of the Crimean environment, (2) an assessment of the load on the territory of the peninsula with mercury-containing waste according to the official data of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Crimea in the form of Forms 2-tp (waste), (3) an analysis and generalization of literature and our own monitoring data on the content of mercury in environmental components, and (4) the pursuance of monitoring research on the territory of cities on the peninsula using leaves of the black poplar Populus nigra L. as indicators of the accumulation of mercury. An analysis of the load of mercury caused by mercury-containing household waste in cities and administrative districts shows its increase by 25% from 2017 to 2018. The greatest load is observed in the cities of Simferopol, Kerch, and Sevastopol, in the Simferopol and Saki administrative districts. In the same territories, according to the literature data, over the past few years, a significant excess of mercury content has been noted in components such as sea water and the water of salt lakes; bottom sediments; soil; and, in industrial northern territories, in precipitation. At the same time, the total mercury content in soils near solid-waste landfills and conditionally background sites in agricultural, protected, and residential areas in 2018 did not exceed the maximum permissible concentrations, and our own data on the content of mercury in soil and plants in residential, urbanized, protected, and agricultural areas indicate a relatively favorable situation at present, but there are statistically significant differences and a higher mercury content in the southern coastal territories, which may be due to their natural characteristics. The need to take into account the mobility of mercury distribution in the environmental subsystems of the Republic of Crimea determines the need for further systemic studies, including a determination of mercury in biosubstrates of the population of the Crimean Peninsula, which is an important integral characteristic of its presence in the biosphere.