Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Akadeemia tee 23, Tallinn, 12618, Estonia.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2014 Oct;21(19):11320-30. doi: 10.1007/s11356-014-3043-0. Epub 2014 May 28.
Estonia is currently one of the leading producers of shale oils in the world. Increased production, transportation and use of shale oils entail risks of environmental contamination. This paper studies the behaviour of two shale fuel oils (SFOs)--'VKG D' and 'VKG sweet'--in different soil matrices under natural climatic conditions. Dynamics of SFOs' hydrocarbons (C10-C40), 16 PAHs, and a number of soil heterotrophic bacteria in oil-spiked soils was investigated during the long-term (1 year) outdoor experiment. In parallel, toxicity of aqueous leachates of oil-spiked soils to aquatic organisms (crustaceans Daphnia magna and Thamnocephalus platyurus and marine bacteria Vibrio fischeri) and terrestrial plants (Sinapis alba and Hordeum vulgare) was evaluated. Our data showed that in temperate climate conditions, the degradation of SFOs in the oil-contaminated soils was very slow: after 1 year of treatment, the decrease of total hydrocarbons' content in the soil did not exceed 25 %. In spite of the comparable chemical composition of the two studied SFOs, the VKG sweet posed higher hazard to the environment than the heavier fraction (VKG D) due to its higher mobility in the soil as well as higher toxicity to aquatic and terrestrial species. Our study demonstrated that the correlation between chemical parameters (such as total hydrocarbons or total PAHs) widely used for the evaluation of the soil pollution levels and corresponding toxicity to aquatic and terrestrial organisms was weak.
爱沙尼亚是目前世界上页岩油的主要生产国之一。页岩油产量、运输和使用的增加带来了环境污染的风险。本文研究了两种页岩燃料油（SFO）——“VKG D”和“VKG 甜”——在自然气候条件下不同土壤基质中的行为。在为期 1 年的户外实验中，研究了油污染土壤中 SFO 的碳氢化合物（C10-C40）、16 种多环芳烃和一些土壤异养菌的动态变化。同时，还评估了油污染土壤的水浸出液对水生生物（甲壳类动物大型溞和扁溞以及海洋细菌发光菌）和陆地植物（白芥和大麦）的毒性。我们的数据表明，在温带气候条件下，SFO 在污染土壤中的降解非常缓慢：经过 1 年的处理，土壤中总碳氢化合物含量的下降不超过 25%。尽管两种研究 SFO 的化学成分相似，但由于 VKG sweet 在土壤中的迁移性更高，以及对水生和陆地物种的毒性更高，因此比重质馏分（VKG D）对环境构成更高的危害。我们的研究表明，用于评估土壤污染水平和相应的水生和陆地生物毒性的化学参数（如总碳氢化合物或总多环芳烃）之间的相关性较弱。
