Final Assessment of the Environemental State of the Natural Reserves Located in the Dnipro Basin

4. FINAL ASSESSMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL STATE OF THE NATURAL RESERVES LOCATED IN THE DNIPRO BASIN

“The Dnipro Source”, “Nerusso-Desniansky Polesie” and the “Khotmyzhsky” national park are the three protected areas selected to implement the project on the establishment of the environmental monitoring stations to control the environmental state of natural reserves located in the Dnipro basin.

The first section of this report justifies the choice of the areas and provides retrospective data of their environmental state.

The third section carries the assessment of the environmental state of these reserves based on the expedition findings. The following several kinds of analysis have been carried out in the first and the third sections of this report:

comparative analysis of factual pollutant concentrations in the natural environment according to the established pollution norms (MAC);

estimation of pollution indexes for the air and water pollutions and classification of water quality by hydro-chemical and hydro-biological indicators to define the quality of natural environment;

analysis of the factual concentrations of radio nuclides in all components of natural environment as compared to their maximum allowable concentrations;

classification of biodiversity by habitat and by spices.

The comparison of all research indicators and samples taken during the expeditions with corresponding retrospective data of environmental monitoring in these regions is of special interest. For the most part, the findings of the expeditions confirm the retrospective environmental data. The indices of water and air pollution as wall as water characteristics are identical. Biodiversity assessments are also fully identical although for a short expedition period it was impossible to document the entire variety of animal and plant spices of the reserves and to complete a large-scale evaluative description of biota. At the same time, the research findings obtained during the expeditions are sufficient for the objective judgment of biodiversity composition and its interdependence with the habitat in these reserves.

Due to a short term of the expeditions it is difficult to follow all the trends of change in the environment of natural reserves. We can only speak of a few tendencies of change in habitat and of their impact on biodiversity.

The quality of natural environment is low but has a tendency towards the improvement. This is testified by the indices of surface water pollution, by the reduction of radio nuclide concentrations in natural environment and by process of bioaccumulation of heavy metals and radio nuclides. The number of animal and plant species is stable. The ecosystems of the natural reserves are in balance; they have retained the power for self-recovery. The power for self-purification was determined in the rivers Dnipro, Desna, Nerussa and Vorokla up to the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. There is a seasonal trend in the quality of biodiversity and natural environment due to specifics of climate and regimes of the rivers flowing through the territory of these reserves.

Changes in the environmental state of protected areas are induced by a number of factors. Natural factor plays an important role. Its influence is especially obvious in “The Dnipro Source” landscape sanctuary. The Dnipro source is located on the area which has no anthropogenic load of industrial enterprises and agriculture. At the same time chemical analysis of the water near the Dnipro source revealed that MAC of BOD₅ is exceeded by several times, which testifies to a large number of organic compounds coming from the marshes surrounding the river source. This is aggravated by little water outflow, river (runoff) at this site. It is significant that eight kilometers downstream of the rivers source with the increase of water outflow BOD₅ significantly decreases.

Factual concentrations of such heavy metals as iron, manganese and copper also exceed MACs in the Dnipro source. Naturally, arises a conclusion of the impact of a natural factor on water quality. These metals were present in the samples of bottom sediments and soil and are accumulated by biota in “The Dnipro Source” landscape sanctuary.

On other protected areas, such as “Nerusso-Desniansky Polesie” and the “Khotmyzhsky” national park, surface waters also contain excessive concentrations of the following metals: iron, manganese and copper. In close proximity to the “Khotmyzhsky” national park there is an iron ore natural deposit, which obviously contributes to the pollution of the Vorskla River.

On the basis of these facts of the pollution of surface waters with metals, one can question the relevance of the established maximum allowable concentrations to the natural background concentrations of metals. This is, however, the subject of a special research.

Second important factor is the influence of human economic activities. Of all natural reserves under analysis, only in the “Briansk Forest” reserve any economic activity a ban was put on any economic activity. In the other reserves there are only some restrictions of economic activities.

“The Dnipro Source” landscape sanctuary and the “Khotmyzhsky” national park are newly established protected areas, which naturally have preserved the heritage of human activities in the past years. Due to this, it is necessary to continue monitoring these protected areas in order to identify the impacts of natural and anthropogenic factors inducing changes in the natural environment. The nearby territories, where no restrictions are put on the economic activities, can be the source of anthropogenic impact on natural reserves. That is why it is advisable to expand the area of the reserves and to reduce anthropogenic load on the areas adjacent to them.

It is still early to speak of the effect of the reserves on the environmental state, considering the fact that “The Dnipro Source” landscape sanctuary and the “Khotmyzhsky” national park have just began their operation. There are positive trends in the environmental revival of the “Briansky Forest” reserve and a small part of the Belarusian reservation “Nerusso-Desniansky Polesie”.

At the moment these protected areas do not serve as models in the field of environmental protection in the Dnipro Basin. Despite the fact that some indicators of environmental quality in the reserves are slightly better than on the other areas it is still too early to compare them with those of other areas of the Dnipro Basin that do not have the status of protected areas.

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