Home – Home – Jornals – Contemporary Problems of Ecology 2009 number 1

Specific features of microbial colonies in frozen mountainous taiga industry-affected landscapes in the Elkon uranium ore region at the territory of Southern Yakutia are revealed: the high number of ecological trophic groups of microorganisms (2,0  10 - 7,6  10 c/g), comparable with the density of microbes in meadow steppe soil of Central Yakutia, and a special character of their distribution over the soil profile depending on the uranium content of the soil. In the soil of uranium-polluted pit, an increase in the number of individuals in al the investigated groups of microorganisms with a decrease in uranium content to 161 mg/kg. In other samples of this pit, disappearance or a decrease in the number of microorganisms by 1-2 orders of magnitude with an increase in uranium content of soil is observed. Unlike for the polluted pit, the number of microorganisms in the soil of native landscape remains high over the entire soil profile. Estimated correlation of the number of individuals of the basic ecological trophic groups of microorganisms with such factors as uranium content, temperature and humidity of soil showed that the connection with the concentration of this radionuclide was strongly negative in the radiation-polluted alluvial soil ( = -0,6), while a strict dependence between the number of microorganisms and soil temperature was revealed for the non-polluted soil ( =