Ecosystem and human health assessment to define environmental management strategies: the case of long-term human impacts on an Arctic lake / Moiseenko T. I., Gashkina N. A., Voinov A. A. [et al.] // The Science of the Total Environment. - 2006. - Т. 369, № 1-3. - С. 1-20.

2 T.I. Moiseenko et al. / Science o f the Total Environment 369 (2006) 1-20 1. Introduction Increasing demands of the human population require more natural resources, and push extractive industries to the previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited areas. That is what brought them to the Arctic. That is why there are vast encroachments into the Arctic regions in many places. Arctic nature is very vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. Slow mass- and energy ex­ change in ecosystems of high latitudes, makes trophic chains short, and biodiversity low, which causes rapid migration of pollutants through trophic levels, and results in fast and severe ecosystem damages. On the other hand, the vulnerability of northern ecosystems is a limiting factor for economic develop­ ment and, accordingly, the quality of life. Sustainable development assumes a balance between economic, social and environmental priorities. High economic profits conflict with ecological requirements: old technologies with no investments in environmental protection degrade the conditions of human life in the North, deplete natural capital, further decrease resil­ ience, biodiversity, aesthetic and recreational value of the ecosystems. The alternative between permanent settlements and rotating temporary work force becomes more uncertain. Required large investments in ecolog­ ical safety decrease industrial profit and, accordingly, salaries and social infrastructure. As a result there is a higher chance of population emigration, lower quality of medical services, decreasing birthrate, increasing mor­ tality, etc. Either we need to provide effective man­ agement tools to ensure environmental safety and sustainable development. Or the large human population should be removed (or never brought back), with economic development achieved by small teams of temporary workers. In which case further and more acute degradation of natural resources is even more likely, since there will be no local controls and no sense of ownership of ecological resources by the temporary residents. It is hard to make the right decisions about the future of these regions, without understanding the specifics of human impacts on Arctic ecosystems and how the disturbed Arctic environment may affect the livelihood of human population. Hh “Olkon" A Fig. 1. Map of Lake Imandra and location of the main enterprises on its shores.