ECOLOGY OF THE TECHNOGENIC RESERVOIRSIN MINING REGIONS

The article highlights the environmental problems of an iron ore mining and processing. The author outlines the issue of the formation of technogenic reservoirs in mining regions such as: tailing ponds, sludge storage, mine water storage ponds. The article describes the formationconditions and types of tailing ponds presented in the Kryvyi Rih iron ore basin. The presented features of the hydrochemical composition of technogenic reservoirs testify high mineralization and very high hardness of water. However, in such extreme ecological conditions, the presenceof ecosystems is noted: from the simplest, formed by microbocenoses in sludge storage to more complex ones formed by phyto- and zoocenoses in flooded spent open pits. Physical and chemical properties of tailing ponds and sludge storage substrates belong to not suitable for thegrowth of many species. However, high mineralization of the water helps to prevent the water surface from freezing over large areas. The latter contributes to the fact that a sufficiently large number of birds can settle in these territories.