Effect of the Wildfires on Sandy Podzol Soils of Nadym Region, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, Russia

Abstract

Active land disturbance of soil and environments appears even in remote landscapes of tundra and forest tundra. Wildfires become a frequent factor of soil degradation and intensification of permafrost degradation, also affecting the global balance of carbon, especially content and distribution of polycyclic aromatic compounds. Mature unaffected by fire sandy-textured podzols soils were investigated in comparison with the same soil strongly affected by surface fire in the end of August 2016 in surroundings of the Pangody settlement, Nadym district, Yamal region. Data obtained showed an intensive morphological transformation of the topsoil layers, decreasing total organic matter and apparently increasing the humus enrichment by nitrogen. Wildfires also result in complete transformation of the fractional composition of the polycyclic aromatic compounds. The sum of PAHs increases intensively as well as benzo(a)pyrene content in soils. Therefore, soils of the cryolithozone become more faced to the wildfires during the last decades. Even one-time fire effect results in serious transformation of soil geochemical state.

Forest fires as drivers of contamination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

“…Despite wildfires being identified as a major source of PAHs, with the smoke of biomass burning revealing high PAH levels [28,41], their recognition as a source of diffuse contamination to terrestrial ecosystems has received less attention [17,18,20,21,34,39,42,43].…”

Human impact and ecosystemic health at Lake Baikal

“…A single wildfire can significantly alter soil geochemistry, and catastrophic wildfires are especially damaging to the soil (Abakumov, Pechkin, & Shamilishvili, 2020). Damaged forests and soils increase foothill erosion, which results in the weathering and washing of fine earth into the rivers.…”

Soil Organic Matter in Urban Areas of the Russian Arctic: A Review

“…Another poorly studied source of carbon in Arctic urban soils is black carbon, which is formed as a result of wildfires, human activities [14], and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) [15]. We can only state that this process takes place, but we cannot estimate it quantitatively.…”