Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2022 number 2

This article presents the results of a study conducted in the coastal zone of Lake Onega. The research is devoted to studying the influence of coastal (abrasion in particular) processes and inflowing rivers on the quality of surface waters of the lake. In October 2019, 47 samples of water (from the surface and bottom horizons), 26 samples of bottom sediments and 16 samples of shore-forming sediments with further determination of metal concentrations were taken on the eastern coasts of the lake in the area of the abrasive (Andomа Mountain key area) and delta (Shal’skoe Onego key area) coasts. The content of the following metals was studied: iron (total), manganese, aluminum, zinc, copper, nickel, chromium, lead, cobalt and cadmium. The emphasis in this study is placed on the determination of the dissolved form of metals in water and the mobile form in coastal and bottom sediments. The results showed that the concentrations of metals in the natural environment of the lake as a whole reflect the hydrochemical picture characteristic of this territory with an excess of the current standards of the quality of water up to 20 times for Mn, Fe, Cu, Pb and Al. The collected array of geochemical data made it possible to conduct a correlation analysis of the influence of coastal processes on the quality of coastal waters of Lake Onega in terms of metal content. The results showed the presence of different types of relationships between the content of metals in bottom sediments and water (from “very weak” to “strong”), which are statistically insignificant. In the area of the Andoma Mountain, the key area, there is a «strong» (close) relationship between the Al, Cu and Pb contents in bottom sediments and in water.