Scientific publications

The patterns of heavy metals (HM) accumulation in fish from lakes of the Murmansk Region within the Green Belt of Fennoscandia (GBF) exposed to long-term air-borne pol-lution associated with the operation of a non-ferrous metal processing enterprise have been studied. The detrimental effects of air-borne water pollution from the Kola GMK mine and smelter do not depend on the dominant wind directions. The reduction in emis-sions from the Nickel site of the Kola GMK in the past decades has not led to a significant decrease in the level of anthropogenic load. On the contrary, a long-term upward trend is observed in the content of Cu in the organs of whitefish, char, pike and perch in all the lakes studied. The accumulation of Cu and Ni in fish target organs tended to decrease along the distance gradient from the source of pollution. The revealed pattern is con-sistent with the intensity of pathologies development in whitefish organs. The common whitefish (Coregonuslavaretus(L., 1758)) is the most reliable test object that reflects the degree of pressure from long-term exposure to HM. The size of the catchment area is supposed to predetermine the intensity and rate of HM accumulation in fish organisms. The cumulative effect of persistent anthropogenic HM load on waterbodies in the study area, climate change processes, and man-induced eutrophication of waters can show in a decline in the biological diversity of the fish fauna in GBF, reduction in the number of valuable fish species. The identified patterns can be used in assessing the state both of existing and planned protected areas inside GBF.