Nuclear Contamination and Environmental Damage From Oil Spills in Polar Regions of FSU

Abstract

The Arctic region is usually defined as an area to the north of the Polar circle (66,5° N latitude). Climatologists consider July isotherm +10°C as the southern border of Arctic. A majority of experts define the Arctic as the area north of the southern limit of seasonal ocean ice, or in the case of land areas, north of the limit of forest. There are also other suggestions for latitude, geographic and climatic Arctic borders. In Russian legislation and in most of the social-economic investigations the term “Arctic” is used rather rarely. Meanwhile Russian statistics are based on administrative regioning of the country. In accordance with these 9 integrated administrative units (20 administrative regions) are related to the Russian Arctic (Fig. 1). Together with the marine economic zone and continental shelf the Russian Arctic constitutes more than 30% of the territory of the Russian Federation. Geographically in the south the Russian Arctic is bordered by the sparse growths of northern taiga and includes polar deserts, tundra, forest-tundra, and northern taiga. The main features of the Arctic are:

• very cold climate with the long winter (7–8 months) and low summer temperatures (11°C–1311°C near the southern borders);

• short vegetation period;

• domination of precipitation over evaporation;

• specific hydrology—a lot of lakes and marshes, mouths of The Great Siberian Rivers;

• general prevalence of permafrost;

• seasonal differences in flows of solar radiation, modulated by alternation of polar days and nights;

• meager biodiversity (vegetation consists mainly of moss, lichen, grass and short shrubs), similar structure and functioning of ecosystems;

• relatively homogeneous distribution of indigenous people (more than 28 different groups of native people live in the European and Siberian North and in the Russian Far East) and old residents and concentration of recent residents in industrial centers;

• traditional economics—reindeer farming and fishing (primarily marine), scarce agriculture;

• domination of mining enterprises (which are located far apart from each other) in industry.