Assessment of anthropogenic impact on the Lapland nature reserve

Lapland Nature Reserve is located in the central part of the Murmansk region. It is the fourth largest state nature reserve in the European part of Russia.

About 20 km from the eastern border of the Lapland Nature Reserve, there is the Severonikel Combine, a source of industrial emissions into the atmosphere. The Severonikel Combine (Monchegorsk) is part of the world's largest association of non-ferrous and precious metals producers «Norilsk Nickel». Severonikel Combine is a powerful source of environmental pollution on the Kola Peninsula. The enterprise processes copper-nickel ores to obtain 14 types of products - nickel, copper, cobalt, concentrates of precious metals and platinum group metals, sulfuric acid.

The Severonikel Combine opened in 1937, but up to 1967 no industrial waste treatment was carried out. Since the beginning of its operation, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, heavy metals (HM), fluorine compounds and other harmful chemicals have been entering the air basin. In 1969, due to the exhaustion of its own copper-nickel deposits and the switch to Norilsk ore with a high sulfur content (up to 22-23%), the volume of sulfur dioxide emissions into the atmosphere increased significantly: their level reached 250-280 thousand tons per year. As a result, in the 1970s, there was a visible degradation of the natural environment within a radius of 20-30 km from the plant. Acid rain caused the drying up of the stand, the disappearance of the moss-lichen layer and an increase in the number of fires. By the mid-1980s, the impact of the plant was already traced at a distance of up to 100 km or more [2].

Air pollution has led to significant disruptions in the functioning of forest ecosystems in the eastern and southeastern parts of the reserve. The first observations about the death of forests on the territory of the reserve as a result of pollution are reflected in the book "Chronicle of Nature" for 1966. The book talks about the death of pine up to 17 km from the source of industrial emissions in the southern direction and about the massive drying up of pine and spruce in the area of the Vite river and in the area of the Kurka lake.

Subsequently, the deterioration of the state of forests was noted in the books "Chronicle of Nature" for 1967, 1969 and 1972. The drying up of forests from industrial emissions on an area of 578 hectares on the territory of the Lapland Reserve was revealed in 1972 as a result of forest management work carried out by the State Unitary Enterprise "North-Western State Forest Inventory Enterprise".

In 1977, an employee of the reserve Ablaeva Z.Kh., according to the degree of exposure to industrial emissions, were identified: the zone of complete destruction of vegetation - 2.2 thousand hectares, the zone of severe damage - 4.5 thousand hectares and the zone of degradation of forest communities - 9.2 thousand hectares, the total area of damage is 15.9 thousand hectares.

In the book "Chronicle of Nature" for 1979, 4 zones were identified: 1 - protected zone of the reserve - complete destruction of phytocenoses; 2 - plantings in the area of the Vite river - severe destruction of plantations; 3 - part of the reserve territory up to the Chunatundra massif - stability zone; 4 - southwestern part of the reserve, the area of the Mavra River - a zone of weakly destroyed phytocenoses.

A forest pathological survey conducted by the Moscow Specialized Forest Inventory Enterprise in 1990 on the territory of the reserve and its protected zone revealed that 10.5 thousand hectares were damaged by industrial emissions from the Severonikel, of which 3238 hectares were weakened, 7065 hectares were strongly weakened, drying up - 218 hectares and dead - 30 hectares. This area is located in the eastern part of the reserve and stands out in the zone of active influence by industrial emissions from the plant. Since 1990, forest management works on the territory of the reserve have not been carried out and the territory of pollution by industrial emissions has not been determined.

Since 1989, the volumes of processing of Norilsk ore began to decline and by 1999 amounted to 4% of the 1990 level, while the volume of production of all commercial metals in 1999 reached 72.8% of the 1990 level. A significant decrease in emissions of harmful substances the transition of the plant to new technologies in the late 1990s also contributed to the air and water basins.

In order to improve work in the field of environmental safety and in accordance with the requirements of the ISO 14001 standard, the company has implemented and certified an environmental management system. This made it possible to significantly reduce the loss of metals with wastewater and gas emissions: in terms of nickel content in wastewater - more than 65 times; for copper in effluents - more than 6 times. The tendency to decrease the loss of cobalt by more than 5 times. Emissions of sulfur dioxide with dust and gas emissions from the plant were reduced by 6.7 times (from 274 thousand tons / year in the 70-80s to 40.8 thousand tons / year in 2005).

The Kola MMC management also declares a further striving to reduce the levels of existing emissions and discharges of pollutants. Nevertheless, the technogenic load is unlikely to be completely removed, it is only possible to minimize it to a certain rational level [1].

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