The Great Norilsk Expedition surveyed very closely how the fuel spill had affected the tundra’s flora and fauna. Despite alarming expectations, the tundra has not suffered greatly, rare species have not been affected, and most probably in 2021 the nature will recover. Experts point to a peculiar fact: the sulfur dioxide contamination favors bigger numbers of animals. The Expedition’s leader of a team in biodiversity, an expert of the Central Siberian Botanical Garden of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch Mikhail Telyatnikov said in an interview with TASS about unexpected conclusions and about the flora’s cleanup levels in the Norilsk Region.
According to him, during the expedition, experts faced the task to identify and describe problems with plants. “We have made 114 comprehensive geo-botanical descriptions both in the contaminated and in clean areas, having similar flora,” he said. “We have made a collection of 201 herbarium lists, 65 herbarium packets of mosses and lichens. Our studies were along the Bezymyannyi and Daldykan Brooks, the Ambarnaya River, in sources of the Pyasina River, in the confluences of the Pyasina and Dudypta Rivers, the Pyasina and Tareya Rivers, in the mouth of the Pyasina River, where it runs into the Kara Sea,” he said.
Phytodiversity levels are aligning
Scientists have come to a conclusion about a major decrease of phytodiversity along the Bezymyannyi and Daldykan Brooks, as well as along the Ambarnaya River. However, in sources of the Pyasina River, the levels are aligning. Further down, towards the Kara Sea, the background communities have not been affected.
“Next summer (in 2021), we would observe how the disruptions have been recovering. Grasses above the soil have been affected a lot. In perennial grasses, the upper part anyway dies, but roots remain. If the roots have not been completely destroyed by diesel fuel, then next year they will be able to form new sprouts, and thus the tundra will return to life and turn green. We expect even next year there will be a tangible recovery of natural ecosystems," he continued. “The fuel spill has affected only floodplain vegetation and only partially. Anyway, there are still some areas that have not been contaminated. The main spread was in the high water season, and the vegetation has been affected right at those levels. However, when the water retreated, the vegetation that was shorter, has not been affected, because the diesel fuel was higher on the water. Thus, we have seen contaminated strips along the shores. Their area takes approximately 10% and not more than 50% of the floodplains along the Bezymyannyi and Daldykan Brooks and the Ambarnaya River.”
No species on the Red Data Book have been affected, though some species on the list come from the Norilsk Region. In the areas, where the expedition worked, there were no even local rare species, the scientist stressed.
Impact on biodiversity is not catastrophic
In response to a question about the accident’s impact on the biodiversity, the scientist confirmed the damage, highlighting it is not catastrophic. “Botanical objects are able for bigger transformation after contacts with oil products, than animals,” he said. “The reason is that in case of unfavorable conditions animals may migrate to similar though safer areas. Whereas plants cannot migrate. After contacts with diesel fuel they degrade partially or die. Let’s, for example, look at the population dynamics in small mammals in 2017 and in 2020. The population of red vole in 2020 decreased insufficiently, by 9 animals, and the population of vole housekeeper remained unchanged. When we tested the internal organs of gray voles caught in the diesel fuel spill zone, we saw that the animals continued to feed on the green mass of sedge-grass plants, which are typical for the Ambarnaya riverbed. When we analyzed the internal organs of all captured animals, we did not see any infectious or metabolic pathology processes. Nor have we found expected typical external changes like chronically affected internal organs, which could have been caused by anthropogenic influences or the fuel spill.”
According to the expert, wild reindeer have not been affected. “There is no influence on wild reindeer, as the fuel spread developed exclusively along two brooks and one river. The other plants were in conditions close to the background levels from the perspective of oil products. Reindeer’s feed base is mostly lichens, that do not grow on floodplains,” he added. “Near Norilsk, there are no migration routes of wild reindeer – the routes are in a distance.”
“We can observe more southern animals, which find the feed base there, like, for example, the white-tailed eagle that settles in trees, or the shaggy-legged buzzard. Mosses and lichens are needed for the tundra species, such as deer, for example. Although deer also feed on grasses in spring and summer,” he said in conclusion.