2026 Ecosystem Transformation 9 (3), 108-129

Ecological risk of mercury pollution of the Bureya Reservoir after a major landslide

Kondratyeva L.M., Andreeva D.V., Litvinenko Z.N. 

In December 2018, a giant landslide occurred for the first time in the Russian Far East at a temperature of −32 °C on the Bureya Reservoir. This landslide triggered a tsunami, destroyed forests on the opposite bank, and altered the hydrological regime. The resulting natural dam affected the dynamics of the biogeochemical cycles of C, N, S, and Hg in the reservoir ecosystem. Microbiological and spectral studies conducted in the summer of 2022 revealed significant changes in the organic matter composition of the water around the landslide. High numbers of culturable heterotrophic and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) observed in the water of bays with increased humification among floating wood. Microbial communities from the bays and bottom water demonstrated high adaptive potential for utilizing readily available calcium lactate in the presence of mercury (II) nitrate at 5 MAC. Sixty-two bacterial strains from various habitats were isolated in the landslide-affected zone, approximately 50% of which grew on agar medium at a mercury concentration of 100 mg/L. Spectroscopic analysis showed that bacterial strains isolated from bottom water at a depth of 65 m exhibited the highest in vitro activity toward soluble sodium humate (HNa). They transformed the aromatic and aliphatic components of HNa in the presence of 10 and 100 mg/L Hg(NO3)2. Aromatic components can act as precursors of volatile compounds with methyl groups, which participate in mercury methylation, increasing its toxicity and bioavailability. Mercury-resistant SRBs isolated from the Bureya Reservoir bottom water layers and wood-filled bays serve as sensitive bioindicators for predicting the ecological risks of methylmercury formation in the landslide-affected zone.

L. M. Kondratyeva
Institute of the Water and Ecology problems Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Khabarovsk Federal Research Center Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
Dikopoltsev St. 56, Khabarovsk, 680000 Russia


D. V. Andreeva
Institute of the Water and Ecology problems Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Khabarovsk Federal Research Center Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
Dikopoltsev St. 56, Khabarovsk, 680000 Russia


Z. N. Litvinenko
Institute of the Water and Ecology problems Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Khabarovsk Federal Research Center Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
Dikopoltsev St. 56, Khabarovsk, 680000 Russia

zoyana2003@mail.ru

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