Zooplankton as an Indicator of the State of Lake Ecosystems Polluted with Mining Wastewater in the Kola Peninsula

The most informative characteristics of the zooplankton-community response to the effect of industrial wastewater from mines have been determined using water bodies of the Kola Peninsula as an example. It has been demonstrated that qualitative and quantitative characteristics of zooplankton depend on the degree of industrial pollution of a water body and adequately reflect differences in the conditions of zooplankton growth between the whole water bodies and their individual parts. The role of zooplankton as an indicator has been assessed and the possibility of including it in the system of monitoring of water objects has been substantiated.     

Specific features of zooplankton community in industrially polluted areas of Subarctic Lake Imandra (Monche, Belaya, and Molochnaya Bays)

Specific structural features of the zooplankton community of Lake Imandra have been analyzed in areas polluted with wastewaters from the copper-nickel industry (Monche Bay) and apatite-nepheline industry (Belaya Bay) or heated waters from the Kola Nuclear Power Plant (Molochnaya Bay) and in a conditionally clean (background) area (the eastern and western parts of Babinskaya Imandra pool). The current ecological state of these communities has been assessed. The results contribute to knowledge about the responses of hydrobionts to pollution with different kinds of industrial wastewaters and the potential of using the zooplankton community as a reliable indicator for evaluating the state of aquatic ecosystems.