Ecological-geochemical assessment of hydrocarbons in soils of Northeastern European Russia

The background contents of hydrocarbons (HCs) in soils of the far-northern and northern taiga of the Komi Republic were assessed. It was found that the soils of accumulative landscapes are enriched with HCs in comparison with the soils of eluvial landscapes. The differentiation of the HCs among the soil genetic horizons is more pronounced in the soils developed on loamy parent rocks (gley-podzolic and bog-podzolic soils) and less pronounced in the soils developed on sands (podzols and humus-illuvial bog-podzolic soils). The organic, litter, and illuvial horizons serve as a geochemical barrier in the pathway of the HC migration within the soil profile. A database for the mass fractions of HCs in the soils was created using GIS technologies, and a sketch map of the HC distribution in the soils was developed on its basis. The results obtained for the back-ground content of HCs are used for assessing the contamination of soils with oil and oil products and for gaining ecological expertise in the development of regional deposits of natural resources (raw hydrocarbons).