Monitoring of soil pollution. Types of soil contamination

At present, much attention is paid toissues of ecology. Humanity at times recklessly and cruelly exploits its planet, not noticing what consequences come after such interactions. But at the same time, pollution of the atmosphere, soil and water in some areas of the Earth reaches critical values. About what there are ways to identify the degree of anthropogenic degradation of the environment, as well as about the measures of influence aimed at the most sparing and effective correction of the current situation, and will be discussed in the material below.

Basic Definitions

The pollution of the ecosystem is one of thevariants of its degradation. In this regard, the food chains and interconnections that have developed over decades have been destroyed, as well as the disappearance of many representatives of flora and fauna. In the role of pollutants, in turn, are all kinds of compounds of anthropogenic origin. They are characterized by the amount of release into the environment, to a considerable extent exceeding the maximum permissible levels that nature can process without huge damage to itself and its inhabitants.

Soil pollution

This is a special kind of anthropogenic degradationenvironment. The main characteristic of such a negative impact on nature is estimated relative to the background level for a particular region. Therefore, periodic monitoring of soil contamination is necessary to determine the percentage of harmful chemicals and compounds in them.

Important Features

One of the most significant criteria by whichcharacterized by an assessment of the degree of soil contamination, can be considered a manifestation of all possible signs of adverse effects of harmful substances in certain species of living organisms. After all, everyone knows that each representative of flora and fauna has a different measure of susceptibility or so-called resistance to the influence of chemical compounds. Particularly dangerous is the fact that the natural environment surrounding man and other living organisms is often oversaturated with some harmful substances. The latter, in turn, come there from various anthropogenic sources and represent a rather significant environmental threat. Moreover, the upper limits of the content of such chemical compounds are so high that any living organisms, regardless of the threshold of sensitivity, can suffer.

Where does the infection come from?

Currently monitoring of soil pollutionreveals several main categories, as a result of which the deterioration of the lithosphere of our planet is observed. It is important to remember that the hard shell of the Earth, through which we make many movements a day, is a special system. It has a huge number of various processes. For example, biological, chemical and physical. However, with negative impact of some anthropogenic factors, all the above processes are violated. Thus, an assessment of the degree of soil contamination has shown that the state of the Earth's lithosphere largely depends on the natural environment in the air envelope, as well as the structure of water resources. After all, it is from there that a significant amount of agricultural, industrial and domestic waste falls into the ground. In addition, soil pollution monitoring revealed that metals, as well as their various compounds, fertilizers (including pesticides) and various radioactive elements are most often used as harmful substances that contribute to their negative contribution.

main sources

As already mentioned, a significant partpollutants enters the environment as a result of economic activities of industrial enterprises, the rural sector, as well as everyday activity of each person. Nevertheless, it is necessary to understand more precisely where and in what volumes these or those substances can flow.

Residential houses

Every day every one of us unconsciously producesthe order of several kilograms of household waste. Perhaps these figures are not so frightening. And if you take the total amount for a certain period? For example, a week, a month, a year? For such an extensive period of time, the above-described value grows to several tons. Not every large megapolis can cope with such an influx of garbage. However, it should be remembered that this category includes not only construction and household waste, but also household items that have gone out of order, feces and so on.

Industrial enterprises

Despite the significant share of housing and communal servicescomplex in the issue of environmental pollution, large-scale production still occupy the first place. Monitoring soil and soil contamination shows that industrial waste has the highest percentage of toxic substances and compounds that can have a sufficiently strong negative impact on natural resources, as well as on many living organisms.

Power Engineering

It would seem strange, but the types of pollutionSoils include such an item. In the modern world, the receipt of electricity and heat is one of the priority directions for the development of each state. Nevertheless, the traditional methods of extracting energy are classified as so-called especially dirty industries. For example, in thermal power plants, through which the above-described benefits of civilization are extracted, combustion of minerals is carried out. As a result, many by-products are formed, such as soot, sulfur oxides and other substances, as well as emissions of small unburned particles into the airspace of the planet. Over time, soil contamination monitoring detects all of these compounds in the ground.

Agriculture

This is the next item in the list of "Types of Pollutionsoil. "Traditionally, harmful substances that enter the environment through this sector of human life are fertilizers, pesticides and other substances, of course, all of them are used for good purposes, for example, to protect agricultural flora and fauna from diseases and pests. However, modern monitoring of soil contamination with pesticides reveals that the negative consequences from such activities are still greater than the benefits. Therefore, the national policy of many developed countries is aimed at and the board of the situation. Therefore, the monitoring of soil pollution in agriculture is an important and integral part of maintaining favorable environmental conditions.

Means of transport

At present, a significant part of the mechanicalvehicles equipped with internal combustion engines. But they are the "suppliers" of a huge number of all kinds of harmful and toxic to the environment compounds. For example, monitoring of soil pollution provides the following information: in areas of large roads, there is an increased content of lead, nitrogen, and also hydrocarbons and other substances that appear as a result of the ICE. It is estimated that every year several tons of harmful compounds are released into the atmosphere only with the exhaust gases of cars. And then they settle on the surface of the Earth. In turn, monitoring of soil pollution with heavy metals allows timely detection of the most dangerous zones and take maximum measures to preserve the ecological situation.

Additional difficulties

With vehicles, anotheran important environmental problem. Namely, accidents on tankers, pipelines and other ways of supplying fuel to the processing site. Similar studies are carried out to monitor soil contamination during hydrocarbon spills. A close monitoring of the places of extraction and processing of oil and its products is being conducted. As the emergence of an emergency situation, there is a danger of salinization of the soil, contamination with heavy metals and other negative consequences that have a detrimental effect on the environment. Nevertheless, every day every one of us unknowingly harms nature. This happens when using all known compounds, such as diesel fuel, gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil and other products obtained as a result of refining. Monitoring of soil pollution, as mentioned earlier, is aimed at identifying particularly critical areas and restoring the positive ecological situation.

Monitoring of soil contamination with mercury

The above-presented substance by its appearance inlithosphere of the Earth is obliged to economic activity of factories, chemical enterprises, and also to combines of the black and color industry. In addition, the deterioration of soil conditions (contamination with heavy metals) is explained by a number of other reasons. To those traditionally referred to as failed measuring devices (for example, thermometers), all kinds of household waste. Of course, a certain percentage of mercury enters the soil through agriculture, namely the use of various fertilizers. However, the previously named element, like other heavy metals, has an important feature. It is that in certain, relatively small amounts, these natural compounds are useful and even necessary for the normal life of organisms. However, if the maximum permissible values ​​of the percentage are exceeded, say, in the human body, the above-described heavy metals can cause significant negative consequences. Starting from mild excitability and memory impairment and ending with the defeat of the central nervous system, the failure of the work of some internal organs and in especially severe cases is even fatal.

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, the earth's soil coveris a fairly complex natural formation, which has a certain set of properties inherent in the objects of both living and nonliving nature. It should be noted that all layers of the lithosphere were formed as a result of long processes of transformation, which took place in direct interaction with other components of the shell of the planet. Such as the hydrosphere, the atmosphere and, of course, the biosphere. Among other things, it is also important to remember that the soil cover is a more stable and difficult to change structure. In connection with the above factors, it is assumed that monitoring of the ground allows the level of the pollutants to be monitored with a high degree of accuracy, and also to determine the boundaries and distribution zones. It is now estimated that every year only a resident of our planet produces about a ton of all kinds of waste. They include both liquid and solid types, and a total of about fifty kilograms are allocated to the share of hardly decomposable materials. As a result of this state of affairs, organizations involved in maintaining and maintaining a favorable ecological environment produce a significant number of studies called monitoring. They, in turn, are systematic observations of the general condition, as well as various changes in the soil cover of a particular region under the influence of certain factors. As the latter can act anthropogenic, technogenic, mechanical, chemical, biological and other pollutants. The main purpose of monitoring is the collection and compilation of information, the identification and prediction of various processes, determining the effectiveness of measures taken to protect the land.