Soil salinization during the development of primary diamond deposits in the cryolithozone (Western Yakutia (Russia))

Relevance. Soil salinization is one of the major contributors to land degradation, which leads to changes in microbial and biochemical properties of soil, loss of biological diversity, desertification and disruption of ecosystem functioning in general. This article presents the results of studying the processes of technogenic salinization of soil cover in the north taiga landscape province within the continuous permafrost zone based on the example of mining area of the primary diamond deposits in Western Yakutia in the Yakutsk diamondiferous province (Alakit-Markha kimberlite field). Aim. Study of soil salinization processes in diamond mining within the continuous permafrost zone and identification of the causes for technogenic pedohalogenesis development. Methods. Major cations and anions, pH were determined in water extract (1:5), soil organic matter was determined using photoelectric colorimetric method. The total of toxic salts was calculated. Statistical analysis was conducted in Statistica10 program. Map-schemes of area distribution of soil salinization and totals of toxic salts were plotted using Surfer-13 program by kriging interpolation method. Result and conclusions. It was established that the processes of technogenic soil salinization due to diamond mining have acquired an areal character, being confined to the mining and processing facilities of the processing plant. In the impact area of waste dumps, predominantly sulfate type of salinization is observed, with the prevalence of toxic salts such as Na2SO4, MgSO4 and MgCl2. A marker of tailing dumps impact includes occurrence of chloride type of salinization and toxic salts, such as Na2SO4, MgSO4 and MgCl2, NaCl. Soil profile of technogenically salinized soils is distinguished by the presence of evaporative, biogenic or permafrost geochemical barriers, which displays the specific nature of salinization processes.