Speakers
Description
Active forest cuts affect ecosystems of the northern European taiga, including river ecosystems. In order to preserve valuable ecosystems, scientifically sound spatial planning of felling is perspective. Scientific information on the effects of logging on river ecosystems of the northern edge of the taiga zone is few, it concerns mainly biotic components. Regular biodiversity observations in remote areas are difficult to conduct. Changes in ecosystem biological components reflect ecosystem disruptions.
Forest felling in catchment areas lead to water pollution due to hard stock disruptions. Regular monitoring of chemical water pollution is necessary for early detection of adverse effects. Remote areas also prevent water quality monitoring through regular sampling at stations. In such conditions an automatic water quality monitoring system with remote monitoring data transmission is required.
Currently, automatic monitoring systems for water bodies are actively used in many countries, including southern Russia. But usage of such systems in the north is hampered by their high maintenance costs and short life of expensive sensors (usually less than a year). Baseline station configuration with 8 sensors of EU or USA production, represented on the market, ranges from €6 000 to €10 000.
The purpose of this work is to develop a methodology to design a low-budget effective automatic network to monitor dangerous hydrochemical changes in small rivers in the northern commercial forests.
Water samples were collected by the Onezhskoe Pomorye National Park expedition to the Onega Peninsula in summer 2020. For the study, 10 rivers were classified according to landscape conditions, some were undisturbed by logging and some from areas with active logging. Hydrochemical parameters of samples were measured in laboratory using standard methods from the Federal Register. The measured hydrochemical parameters are electrical conductivity, pH, content of nitrates, nitrites, ammonium ion, phosphates, sulfates, carbonates, cationic composition of water, chemical oxygen consumption, chromaticity, turbidity, organoleptic indicators.
These measurements were compared to existing water quality standards (PDK). Correlation analysis has been conducted. Some parameters change significantly in logging areas, they can be used as negative changes indicators for river ecosystems. This was confirmed by a parallel study of macrophytobenthos samples, represented by species confined to eutrophic conditions. Identified indicator parameters are an ammonium ion content, nitrite ion content and biochemical oxygen consumption. Their increase above the standard values indicates negative impact of felling on catchment areas. Locations for 6 water monitoring stations are suggested on the basis of the received results. Each station is to be equipped with sensors for 2 indicators (ammonium ion and nitrite ion). The annual maintenance cost of one station is less than €2 000 with EU/USA produced sensors.
| Publication | IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science |
|---|---|
| Affiliation of speaker | University ITMO |
