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.

T.I. Moiseenko et al. / Science o f the Total Environment 369 (2006) 1-20 3 Among Arctic regions, the Russian Kola North (Murmansk region) is the most densely populated and industrially developed. The spectrum of anthropogenic impacts is wide: mining, metallurgy, refineries and chemical industries, nuclear power station, etc. A large part o f these industries are in the Lake Imandra catchment basin. The population living here is about 300,000 people, or 35% of all population of Murmansk region. The watershed covers 12,300 km2; the area of the Lake is 880 km2. The lake consists of three parts connected by narrow straits (Fig. 1 ). For more than 70 years the lake, the reservoirs, streams and rivers are used as a source of technical and drinking water supply, for recreation, tourism and fishery. Industrial development of mineral deposits close to the Lake began in the 1930-40s and reached maximum in the 1980s. The watershed can work as a model region for designing best management practices for sustainable development in the Arctic. There have been large human made changes in the ecosystems there. For sustainable development of this region it is important to define the limits for economic impacts that the environment can absorb without compromising ecosystem and human health in the watershed. Our main objectives were as follows: 1. Understand the anthropogenic effects on water quality and the ecosystem response to development using Lake Imandra watershed as a case study. 2. Assess Lake ecosystem health, establish critical levels of water pollution, and compare them with existing levels of pollution. 3. Estimate the influence of drinking water pollution on health o f local human population, and provide recommendations for water quality standards in Arctic regions. 4. Design management tools for environmental protection. This work is based on analytical reviews of long term investigations of the authors and previous research and methods reported by Vereshagin (1930), Rikhter (1934), Poretskij et al. (1934), Voronikhin (1935), Krokhin and Semenovich (1940), Berg and Pravdin (1948) a nd also Galkin et al. (1966), Petrovskaya (1966), Dol’nik and Stal’makova (1975), Den’gina (1980), Moiseenko and Yakovlev (1990), Moiseenko (1999), Moiseenko et al. (1999), Yakovlev (1998), Iliaschuk (2002a,b), Vandish (2000, 2002). Unfortunately, there was no continuous monitoring of the Lake, so we had to make the best of the available information. Retrospective analysis was complemented with results of field investigations of 2003. We focused on the main parameters of water chemistry and indicators o f phyto-, zooplankton, benthos and fish condition, which best reflect ecosystem change under anthropogenic impacts in relation to the reference condition, as well as the quality of drinking water and health of the local human population. Table 1 Influx of pollutants from watershed into the Bol’shaya Imandra (numerator — in 1989 year, denominator — in 2003 year) Rivers Watershed area, km2 discharge, m3/s SO4, t/year Ni, t/year Cu, t/year P, t/year N, t/year Nyuduaj 86.37 1.29 39,867 101.7 4.9 2.8 69.9 25,548 14.2 3.9 2.8 20.1 Monche 1583.5 20.5 23,624 39.7 47.3 6.2 75.3 2596 6.9 6.3 2.3 75.6 Gol’tsovka 92.3 1.84 46 0.1 0.1 1.4 - 78 0.03 0.03 0.2 5.2 Vite 236.2 5.68 1049 1.4 1.1 2.3 59.6 505 0.8 0.9 1.0 23.2 Kurkenjok 176.8 3.37 792 0.9 0.8 2.6 50.0 519 0.4 0.5 0.6 13.4 B. Belaya 236.1 4.72 4465 0.7 0.9 53.1 771.9 3647 0.1 0.4 54.5 332.5 Sum of inflow with rivers 69,844 144.7 55.1 68.3 1026.8 32,893 22.4 12.0 61.5 470.0 Unaccounted inflow 1509 2.0 1.6 4.9 87.7 882 0.9 1.1 1.4 33.4 Total inflow 71,354 146.7 56.7 733 1114.6 33,775 23.4 13.0 62.9 503.4 Outflow 41,683 31.5 12.2 32.1 482.3 32732 9.5 6.3 22.7 142.9 Accumulation 29,671 115.2 44.6 41.2 632.3 1043 13.9 6.8 40.2 360.5