Soils of abandoned industrial wastes disposal sites: properties, processes, functioning
- 1Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russsian Federation (natalia.telnova@gmail.com)
- 2Erisman Federal Research Center of Hygiene, Service for Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor), , Moscow, Russsian Federation
- 3National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow, Russsian Federation
Soils formed at once abandoned and recultivated industrial waste dumping sites are key research objects both as models of soil-forming processes in underdeveloped soils and indicators of persistent or potential environmental hazards of dumps themselves. Our studies of technogenic surface-like soil formations (TSF) and soils were conducted on a closed landfill and two abandoned filtration fields from sugar factories in Kursk region, central part of European Russia.
Key properties of TSF and soils were defined with the assessments of their ecological, microbiological state and gas-geochemical condition. Set of methods (mesomorphological and micromorphological analysis, soil chemical and physico-chemical analysis, comparatively geographical method) was used for the detection of current elementary soil processes. Seasonal dynamics of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions from soils to the atmosphere was also under consideration. Main used methodology is a research of sustainable properties of soil solid-phase (“soil memory”) together with soil functioning.
Long-term time series of high-detailed remote sensing data (from archive aerial photos of 1950s to actual satellite images and UAV optical photogrammetry) provided the possibility for the retrospective remote monitoring of the all abandoned dumps in study and reconstruction of their life cycles and land cover patterns.
As a result for the three industrial waste dumping sites of different types and the varying age of abandonment and recultivation history there were elaborated schemes of chrono-functional zoning. Each chrono-functional zone is characterized by the specific set of TSF and soils. Among them, it was described technogenic surface-like soil formations of closed landfill, calcareous technosols with several thick organic layers at the bottom of abandoned field filtration cells, calcic anthrosols of field filtration cells spontaneously used for agriculture after the abandonment of sugar factories.
The study is financially supported by RFBR project № 19–29–05025–mk.
How to cite: Zamotaev, I., Telnova, N., Alexandrovskiy, A., Gracheva, R., Dolgikh, A., Karelin, D., Konoplyanikova, Y., Mikheev, P., Dobrianskiy, A., and Belova, E.: Soils of abandoned industrial wastes disposal sites: properties, processes, functioning, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-19676, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-19676, 2020
