High-Low Tide Water Area Bottom Sediments Composition (the Tatar Strait South- Western Part)

Data on the carbon hydrates content and composition is given: aliphatic hydrocarbons and aromatic hydrocarbons in comparison with total organic matter, phyto/pigments and quantity of heterotrophic and oil-oxidizing bacteria in bottom sediments of the Toki River tide estuary (the Tatar Strait). It has been stated that substance/structural composition of the sedimentation material in the Toki River estuary is determined by two matter flows of opposite direction: terrigenous runoff with river waters (wood and grass remains, fresh water phyto- and bacteria-plankton, anthropogenous pollutants including aliphatic hydrocarbons and aromatic hydrocarbons) and materials of marine origin including mineral components (fine-dispersed sand fractions), died-off macrovegetations, sea grass phyto- and bacteria- plankton. Phyto-and bacteria-benthos communities well-adopted to variable conditions of salinity are developing in bottom sediments. High ability of the benthos microbe community to hydrocarbons utilization has been revealed. At the same time intermediate products of organic matter destruction (spirits and ethers) are found in the estuary bottom sediments micro/aerophilic conditions. Over the period from 2009 to 2016 a considerable increase of toxic aromatic hydrocarbons content in the Toki River internal estuary has been registered – a probable source of them is a solid waste dump located on the river catchment. According to group composition of н-alkanes molecular spectra, natural sources contribute the most in formation of the current bio/geo/chemical background of the smaller estuary.