Heavy metals in soil of the Baikal biosphere reserve （in connection with degradation of fir forests of the northern macroslope of Khamar-Daban Range）

The Baikal biosphere reserve （Khamar-Daban Range, South Pribaikalye） demonstrates withering of fir forests, progressing from 1970＇s. As to possible reasons of this phenomenon concerned, there are many viewpoints; the main among them is the technogenic influence of the Baikalsk pulp and paper plant （BPPP） and Irkutsk industrial center （IIC） on forest ecosystems. Geochemical characteristics of the snow cover within the Baikal reserve, investigated by us earlier indicate that degradation of fir forests at present does not result from the transfer of industrial emissions from BPPP and IIC to places of growing fir forests. Aimed at further revealing of reasons of fir forests withering, we investigated the chemical composition of soil （as a substratum feeding trees） in the Baikal biosphere reserve. We studied brown mountain-forest and alluvial-turf soil predominating in the reserve, which are characterized by weak differentiation profiles, in places （at the slope＇s bottom） by significant （up to 2.5-3 m） thickness. Samples of 250-300 gr. were collected from the genetic soil horizons distinguished visually and roughly by the thickness. Total contents of heavy metals （HM）-Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Co, Mn, Cd, Li, Rb, Sr, their mobile modes of occurrence （m/m）, extracted by acetate-ammonium buffer with pH=4.8 were determined. We also measured the concentrations of metals in the insoluble （fixed） residue （FR） obtained after extracting their mobile modes by atomic-absorption （Perkin-Elmer -503 spectrometer） method. The analytical error by this method does not exceed 10 %.