Changes of the properties of oil-polluted soils after recultivation (remediation) on the northern territories of the Russian Federation (the Republic of Komi)

Soil petroleum pollution is characteristic for soils of many petroleum-producing countries. The success of recultivation of such soils is determined by the speed and quality of cleaning and further propertiestransformation of recultivated soils. The researchers' work is devoted to the examination of properties of recultivated more than 20 years ago petroleum polluted soils. They defined physical and chemical properties and regimes of soils, fractional composition of the hydrocarbons of petroleum, the total population and the taxonomic structure of saprotrophic bacterial complex. It was shown that the ability of the studied recultivated soils to self-purification from anthropogenic hydrocarbons is determined by a combination of such a factors: 1. landscape position and removal of organic pollutants by surface water, 2. fractional composition of hydrocarbons, and 3. biodegradation and level of initial contamination with hydrocarbons. It was found that the direction and intensity of the soils evolution is primarily due to the degree of soil initial properties and regimes transformations during the recultivation procedure.