Date

New Book Available
Geoecology of Western Arctic Shelf of Russia: Lithological and
Ecogeochemical Aspects
By: Gennady I. Ivanov
Nauka, St. Petersburg, 2006, 303 pages
ISBN: 5-02-025135-6
Price: 45 EUR

For further information and to order the book, please contact:
Gennady I. Ivanov
E-mail: gennady [at] sevmorgeo.com


"Geoecology of Western Arctic Shelf of Russia: Lithological and
Ecogeochemical Aspects," a new book by Gennady I. Ivanov, is now
available.

Abstract
New scientific-methodological techniques have been devised and tested
for geoecological research on the arctic shelf. This approach allows
classification of the sources of pollutants in accordance with the
general concept of sedimentogenesis. Three groups of sources have been
identified: exogenous, endogenous, and aquapolitechnogenic. On the basis
of this approach, a set of procedures and a research methodology were
devised and tested for a comprehensive assessment of the status of the
natural environment in the western arctic shelf. More than 1,100
stations were established. The methodology comprises comprehensive study
of all links in the ecosystem (aerosols, substance flows, suspension,
water column, seabed sediment and pore water, and benthic communities),
both in terms of gross pollutant concentrations and the forms in which
they occur. Analysis of concentrations of all the main groups of
pollutants (surfactants, HC, PAH, phenols, HM, and COC radionuclide) in
the bottom environment of the western sector of the Arctic at various
hierarchical levels of the geological features showed they depend on the
trans-regional, regional, and local characteristics of genesis and
migration and on transformation and accumulation conditions. An
assessment of the scale of pollutants entering the geoecosystem of the
west arctic shelf establishes the predominance of natural exogenous and
endogenous sources, as well as stability and continuity which have
maintained the region's geoecosystem undisturbed through self-regulation
and self-purification. Differential and integral analysis of the
parameters of the bottom environment in Russia's arctic shelf testifies
to the relatively low level of anthropogenic stress. Local areas with
disturbed biotic and abiotic environments (i.e., Kola Bay and its
estuarine parts, Belushya port, Chernaya Bay) are the result of economic
activity, while areas with high concentrations of pollutants along the
coasts of Svalbard and the Svalbard-Kola Peninsula transect are the
result of pollution from Western Europe arriving with the warm Atlantic
waters.

For further information and to order the book, please contact:
Gennady I. Ivanov
E-mail: gennady [at] sevmorgeo.com