Geochemistry International最新文献

Throughout millions of years of geological history (in the Phanerozoic), the coevolution of all living organisms took place in a fierce competition for resources and opportunities for the maximum reproduction. Due to the geochemical heterogeneity of the primary (pre-Quaternary) biosphere, this resulted in a self-regulating system of ecological niches, within which all local biocenoses and their animal and plant species were maximally adapted to the parameters of the habitat. However, with the emergence of reason, the situation changed fundamentally. Human beings became the dominant species and began the conscious development of new territories, including geochemically unfavorable ones, which led to the formation of zones of stable endemic diseases. Based on this premise, for all existing species, there should be areas with physiologically optimal habitat conditions, i.e., those under which the species has evolved to its present state. It follows that, by being able to record the geochemical parameters of the undisturbed biosphere, it is possible to obtain characteristics that are ecologically ideal for local animal and plant species. In theoretical terms, this allowed us to put forward the hypothesis that by fixing the difference between observed and ideal geochemical conditions, it is possible to build maps of risk of diseases of geochemical nature, including in areas subjected to anthropogenic pollution. The paper outlines the methodology and gives examples of construction of such maps. The obtained results can have an important practical value in organizing the system of sanitary–epidemiological service, in solving the problems of liquidation of the consequences of anthropogenic pollution, and in carrying out preventive measures to minimize the risk of diseases of geochemical nature.

The paper analyzes the effect of ever increasing anthropogenic impacts on land waters and analyzes V.I. Vernadsky’s works on natural waters and their significance for assessing modern biogeochemical processes. The paper demonstrates the scale of the influx of chemical elements and compounds into the modern biosphere as a result of the emission of greenhouse gases, nitrogen and phosphorus dissemination, acid-forming gases, and metals. Key changes in some regions and the biosphere as a whole are highlighted. The consequences of anthropogenically induced processes are illustrated by the example of a remote Arctic region, the northern Kola Peninsula in Russia: the effects of climate warming and the acidification and eutrophication of the waters and their enrichment in metals. In the wake of V.I. Vernadsky’s ideas about the role of land waters in supporting the life necessities of the planet’s human population, approaches to assessing water quality from the standpoint of the ecological paradigm are described.

The paper discusses the core ideas and the development of biogeochemistry as an integrated research avenue in geochemistry and biology created by V.I. Vernadsky. Much attention is paid to the key concepts of biogeochemistry: living matter, the biogenic migration of chemical elements, and the chemical elemental composition of organisms and its ecological significance. The development of the various functions of the biosphere is analyzed: ecological, concentrational, and informational. The differentiation of the chemical elemental composition of organisms is analyzed under conditions when the biosphere is impacted by anthropogenic activities (the development of industries). The role of biogeochemistry is demonstrated with reference to the development of biotechnologies and the elaboration of a biogeochemical indication of the ecological state of biospheric taxons. The progress in biogeochemistry and its current problems are briefly analyzed.

The paper presents evidence that a biogeochemical approach should be applied in analyzing interactions in the system society–nature when the biosphere is affected by anthropogenic impacts, whose key indicator is the health status of the human population. The basic principles and tasks of multilevel medico-ecological monitoring are described, which make it possible to systematically proceed from the qualitative assessment of the state of the human population health and ecological situation to the quantitative assessment of the ecological health risks and regional standards for permissible levels of technogenic factors, with regard to the probable changes in their effects due to the biogeochemical conditions of the environment. The paper provides verification results of the monitoring methods applied at a regional (Republic of Crimea), subregional (in the cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol), and local (individual cohorts of the urban population) levels. Although the official statistics received from various state departments is less informative for the regional research, it nevertheless allowed us to outline (at a reasonable probability level) territories with contrastingly different parameters of environmental health risk. Subregional (within settlements) biomonitoring in Sevastopol and Simferopol has revealed a spatial heterogeneity and loci with higher contents of some heavy metals and other chemical elements in the environment and biosubstrates (soil and plants). Cohort studies of residents of these cities and assessment of 29 chemical elements in the human organism were followed by the examination of the functional state of target systems in humans belonging to risk groups. Results of correlation and regression analysis allowed us to estimate the physiological significance of the elements and the effects of their complex influence at a background exposure.