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The concentration of main organic and inorganic pollutants (heavy metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, radionuclides) in surface waters and in water-soil solutions was analysed on three keysites within the permafrost zone: Tazovsky Peninsula (North-West Siberia), Kolyma Lowland (North Yakutia) and adjacent to Yakutsk (Central Yakutia). In the majority of sampling points that are not directly impacted by human activity, the pollutants accumulate in the uppermost organogenic and organo-mineral horizons of natural soils. At the human-affected keysites the major pollutants may accumulate not only in the superficial horizons of the disturbed soils due to the surface runoff but also in the central parts of the profile, in the material buried by cryogenic, solifluction or fluvial processes and in some cases – in the suprapermafrost horizons and in the upper layer of permafrost transported via suprapermafrost water runoff.

The biogeochemical effect of birds can influence the paedogenic processes in the Antarctica soils. The content of nutrients (phosphorus, potassium, nitrate and ammonium) and the total carbon and nitrogen contents in soils were determined at the nesting and feeding sites of flying and non-flying birds in the Fildes Peninsula (King George Island, West Antarctica). The results showed that the difference between soils affected by birds (both flying and non-flying) and the background soils was observed with the higher content of biogenic elements (e.g. C, N, P, K) and fine-earth content, variable soil pH values, more expressed soil structure and specific morphology of the uppermost organogenic and organo-mineral horizons. Additional chemical indices are suggested for diagnostics of current and recent effect of birds on paedoenvironments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]