Kumtor, the largest gold mine in Central Asia, is located southeast of the Kyrgyz Republic at an altitude of 4000 m a.s.l. in a partially glaciated permafrost zone at 41º52'N and 78º11'E. Its climate is continental, with an average annual temperature of-8ºC [1]. The Kumtor complex is in close proximity to the active glaciers [2] belonging to the Naryn River basin, which has international importance [3]. As a result of the largescale activity of the Kumtor gold mine, only 162.9 tons of oiled rags were formed at the landfill site between 2014 and 2016, which relate to dangerous waste of
Pollution of soil ecosystems by petroleum-based contaminants is a global problem that requires urgent measures to resolve it, especially the pollution of soils in the subarctic and high-mountain regions (Filler et al. 2009, McDonald and Knox 2014, Adipah 2019. Petroleum pollution causes oxidative stress, changes in soil chemistry and low nutrient availability. Petroleum-based contaminants reduce the number and metabolic activity of aerobic soil microorganisms and affect plant growth and germination, creating an impermeable membrane that impedes water and oxygen circulation. Especially high molecular weight petroleum hydrocarbons negatively influence soils organisms for a long time (Chen and Zhong 2019).Sites in cold climatic zones experience temporally variable temperatures, and these variations may have an impact on the local soil microbial activity (Chang et al. 2011). Implementation of bioremediation techniques to accelerate natural biodegradation rates is an economically and ecologically effective method (Kumar et al. 2019). Nowadays bioremediation approaches have been studied by many researchers in numerous laboratory and field experiments, and approved as simple to maintain, applicable over large areas, cost-effective and environmentally friendly technologies to remediate oil contaminants (Adams et al. 2015, Koshlaf and Ball 2017, Wu et al. 2019. There are in-situ and ex-situ techniques, the first one involves treatment the contaminated soil without excavation whilst the latter does. In-situ soil remediation techniques are rare in many countries due to uncertainty about their effectiveness of this technique and possible adverse environmental impacts, especially in cold regions due to lack of knowledge
Comprehensive studies of soil contamination were performed in the area of settlement Kichi-Kemin (Kyrgyz Republic). Soils of the Kyrgyz Republic are exposed to waste (tailings) of many industrial enterprises of the mining industry not far from the village of Ak-Tuz, located 145 km from the capital of Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek, at an altitude of 2300 m above sea level. It is noted that 4.17 million tons of radioactive waste from one of the enterprises were once disposed of at four tailings in the Kichi-Kemin Valley. The main waste elements are radioactive thorium, heavy metals such as cadmium, molybdenum, lead, zinc, beryllium, and oxides of hafnium and zirconium. The impact of these wastes on soil ecotoxicity and microbial communities is not yet well understood. In this work, soil environmental assessment near waste deposits were investigated using an integrated method known as the Triad approach. The integral index of soil disturbance was calculated from the data of ecological observations of soil microbial communities (bioindication), data of ecotoxicological index by phytotesting approach (bioassay), and chemical index reflecting the results of a quantitative chemical analysis of the content of pollutants. The ecological index, calculated from the bioindication parameters of the soil microbiota communities, has become a reputable indicator of the state of soils from vulnerable mountain ecosystems. Studies of soil microorganisms have shown a decrease in species diversity in contaminated soils. The most resistant species of fungi were Aspergillus and Penicillium. Among the actinomycetes of the genus Streptomyces, the Albus and Cinereus sections proved to be stable. Estimation of anthropogenic impacts on mountain ecosystems in the Kyrgyz Republic using the Triad approach has shown that the most sensitive toxicity index in the soils of the Ak-Tuz is the ecotoxicological
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