Monitoring of the impact of road salting on spruce forest ecosystem in the vicinity of the highway D1 in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, Czech Republic.

Jitka Hegrová,Martina Bucková,Petr Anděl,Lubomír Prokeš,Vilma Jandová,Karel Effenberger,Roman Ličbinský

doi:10.1007/s11356-021-16468-9

Abstract

Monitoring of pollution in the vicinity of roads connected to winter road maintenance is one of the important tools for optimising winter maintenance technology and reducing its environmental impact. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between winter road maintenance and the increased concentration of sodium ion to characterise the harm caused by the de-icing agents on selected types of individual components grown in the Norway spruce ecosystem. The model area is located in the immediate vicinity of the D1 motorway connecting Prague and Brno (Czech Republic), at 103 km. The area is thus exposed to long-term contamination from automobile transport, and the monitoring was carried out for 3 consecutive years. A clear effect of the de-icing agents on conifers near the road has been demonstrated by the symptoms of salt damage visually observed in close proximity to the road (at a sampling distance of 5 m). The needles of these spruce trees also showed increased sodium concentrations, regardless of the age of the needles. The study also confirms that sodium accumulates in all selected components of the analysed ecosystem (moos, humus, soil). The sodium concentration has been found to decrease with increasing distance from the road for all of the components.

Highlights

Transport is generally perceived as an important factor affecting the quality of the environment
The aim of this study is to evaluate the long-term impact of winter road maintenance on the spruce forest ecosystem located in the immediate vicinity of a highway in Czech Republic
Monitoring of chemical contamination is a suitable factor for assessing the effect of winter road treatment on the analysed biota

Summary

Introduction

Transport is generally perceived as an important factor affecting the quality of the environment. Published studies focus usually on the impact of winter maintenance on the soil environment in the Czech Republic (Černohlávková et al, 2008; Hofman et al, 2012) and on bioindication of the effect of de-icing material on spruce and pine needles (Zítková et al, 2018; Zítková et al, 2021). The main goal of these article is to point out the transport of sodium and chloride ions in form of aerosol to distances up to tens or hundreds of meters Because of it affects all the ecosystem, its various components (needles of different age, fallen needles, humus, soil, grass, moos and lichen) were sampled in three various distances from the road. The research is based on the determination of accumulation and distribution of Na ions in the individual components of the selected ecosystem

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