Peculiarities of Heavy Metals Accumulation by the Plants of Meadow Phytocenosis

Abstract

This work is devoted to studying of the accumulation peculiarities of heavy metals (HM) by the meadow phytocenosis plants and also plants phytomeliotating properties at various levels of soil contamination. The system “cespitose-podsol soil – meadow vegetation” has been chosen as a research object. Heavy metals as a kind of industrial waste-galvanic slurry enriched by zinc amounting 79.7% of all HM detected in the slurry-was introduced into the soil. Heavy metals content and redistribution in soil at various amount of galvanic slurry, quantitative and specific content of phytocenosis, heavy metals accumulation in the meadow vegetation crop at various contamination layers have been studied during research. Among the researched phytocenosis the groups of plants with high and low heavy metals accumulation capacity have been defined. Cirsium arvense, Capsella bursapastoris, Artemisia vulgarus and Rumex confertus belonged to the group accumulating several heavy metals in considerable amounts without significant phytomass loss. The majority of these plants possess developed phytomass and their ability to accumulate heavy metals in large amount allows using them as phytomeliorants for soil decontamination at the final stages of reclaiming.