Geo-ecological studies

The main effect of anthropogenic influence on nature is formation of abnormal concentrations of chemical elements and compounds as a result of the landscape components contamination. One of the main tasks of ecological-geochemical studies of the environment is discovery of man-made anomalies in various media. Testing of snow, soil, underground and surface water, bottomset beds, plants is used for estimation of contamination of the natural environment.
Environmental quality is described with a system of ecological-geochemical indicators: air pollution index, water contamination index, soil total contamination index, man-made  concentration index and so on.
 
Quality norms are set as maximum permissible concentrations of hazardous compounds, which almost do not influence human health and ecosystem during a long period.
X-Ray fluorescence analysis (XRFA) method is a physical method of analysis which provides determination of the most chemical elements of the periodic table being in powder, liquid or solid samples. XRF spectrometer may determine element concentration in a wide range from very low mg/kg up to 100% without sample dilution. This capability of XRFA is very important for analysis of complicated environmental objects.
Though XRFA has worse low limits of detection than atomic absorption spectroscopy or inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, it can solve a wide range of problems with one spectrometer. XRFA is economically efficient, non-destructive, simple in operation, require almost no consumables, therefore it is one of the most productive and multi elemental analysis at a time.
XRFA has sufficiently developed test methods base, therefore air, water, soil and plant samples may be examined for a wide spectrum of elements. Special and various sample preparation makes possible to determine low concentrations of heavy metals.