KRASNOYARSK, November 5. /TASS/. Scientists found positive changes in vegetation and soils in the Norilsk Industrial District's previously heavily disturbed areas in compared to conditions registered at the beginning of the 21st century, the Siberian Federal University told TASS.
Scientists of the Siberian Federal University and the Sukachev Institute of Forestry (the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch) conducted a large-scale study of soils in the Arctic. They compared Arctic soils of natural and disturbed landscapes in the Norilsk Industrial District. The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation and the Krasnoyarsk Regional Science Foundation.
"We have studied about 60 soil sections from 12 sites, registering changes in the thermal and humidity conditions of the soil cover in disturbed landscapes in comparison with conditions in the early 2000s. At the present restoration stage, herbaceous vegetation is successfully developing in disturbed ecosystems, while shrubs and trees demonstrate relatively slow recovery, which in fact is typical for longer living woody plants," the university said.
Results of the work are important from scientific and practical points of view, said Evgeny Ponomarev, associate professor at the university's Department of Ecology and Nature Management and senior researcher at the Sukachev Institute of Forestry. Under the project, scientists are developing recommendations for subsurface users in the Arctic - they are improving a numerical model that can predict the rate of soils' degradation or restoration, heat exchange in them, as well as vegetation specifications and other key parameters.
The Siberian Federal University was founded in 2006 as a merger of four universities in Krasnoyarsk.