THE CONTENT OF HEAVY METALS IN THE NEEDLES OF PINE CULTURES ON RECLAIMED LANDS

Abstract

Plant condition is informative integral indicator that reflects the characters of environment contamination. The special attention is given to conifers, which have a lower resistance to atmospheric pollutants compared to deciduous plants. The aim of research is to study the features of accumulation of heavy metals by assimilating organs of pine growing on the mine dumps of Western Donbas within Northern Steppe of Ukraine. The object of the study was the Crimean pine (Pinus palasiana L.) growing on reclaimed land of Pavlograd mine dumps within Dnipropetrovsk region. The study was conducted at the site of forest restoration, created in 1975 in the area of mine field of the mine "Pavlogradska". Pine needles were selected from trees that grow in the soil of mine rocks (experiment sample) and reclaimed soils – the mine rock with suclay (control). Determining the concentration of heavy metals in soil and pine needles was performed using the method of plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) on the spectrometer Technologiest 5100 (Agilent), in Spain, Girona. The results of the research determining heavy metals content in pine needles showed the existing trend of accumulation in the version of growth experiment samples on the mine rock compared to the reclaimed lands. Firstly, we have found that the average content of heavy metals in the pine needles ranges from 1.56 to 69.15 mg/kg. The highest concentration of the studied metals range found for Pb and Zn, while the lowest content in the needles established for Ni. These results show that if the metals accumulation on the mine rock is small for Sn, Zn, Cu, then the content of Ni in needles increases in 3.0, Pb in 4.7, and Cr in 5.4 times. Secondly, the comparison of the contents of the studied elements in the soil with the maximum permissible concentration in two studied variants showed that both the mine rock, so with adding suclay, observe the excess of the acceptable norm of metals. Thirdly, the indicators of content elements of heavy metal at the mine rock exceeding the maximum permissible concentration in soils at 1.27 (Pb), 10.81 (Ni), 20.2 (Sn), 2.5 (Zn), 9.2 (Cu) times. Finally, to characterize the biological activity of Crimean pine needles, the biological coefficient accumulation was calculated. From the studied metals lead belongs to the elements with strong accumulation ability and all other metals belong to elements of weak accumulation. Accumulated activity of pine that grows under the influence of mine rock in 1.1-3.2 times higher compared to the variant of mine rock with adding suclay. To conclude, the research results showed a trend of accumulation of heavy metal elements in the variant of growth sample copies on the mine rock, compared to plants growing in the reclamation areas.