FEATURES OF OIL POLLUTION TRANSFORMATION IN SOILS OF DIFFERENT CLIMATIC ZONES OF YAKUTIA

Transformation processes of oil pollutants in soils under cryolithozone conditions studied insufficiently. The investigation purpose was studying the transformation processes of oil pollution at the oil depots located in various climatic zones of Yakutia. Areas of the oil depots with long-standing contamination (more than 10 years) selected for research. The studies were carried out using the complex of geochemical analysis methods: cold chloroform extraction, IR-spectrometry, liquid adsorption chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. It was shown that although a permafrost was spreading in all study areas, oxidative destruction processes of oil pollution proceeded through different mechanisms in soils of different climatic zones. Most likely, this was due to a temperature factor affected the activity of soil microflora and its diversity. The average annual temperature of rocks in Central Yakutia is -3÷-5°C, while in the Arctic -9÷-11°C. The duration of the frost-free period is 75-90 days and 30-45 days, respectively. Thus, in Central Yakutia (temperate zone with a sharply continental climate), the oxidative destruction processes of hydrocarbons occurred predominantly under influence of hydrocarbon-oxidizing microorganisms while to the Arctic zone - under influence of physicochemical environmental factors, which led to a settlement of oil-polluted Arctic soils by putrefactive and pathogenic microorganisms.