The impact of air pollution from the mining-metallurgical complex on the content of total sulfur in plant material and soil

Abstract

The area of Bor and the surroundings (Eastern Serbia) have beenknown for exploitation and processing of sulfide copper ores for morethan a hundred years. Long-term ore exploitation in the examined areahas made a great impact on local environment. For the purpose ofevaluating the influence of emission from the mining-metallurgicalcomplex, biomonitoring has been conducted in the urban-industrial andrural zone. Total sulfur concentrations were determined in samples ofdeciduous (birch and linden) and evergreen (spruce and pine) trees, aswell as in moss and edible parts of fruits and vegetables (apple, pear,string beans and potato). Significantly higher concentrations of the total sulfur in parts ofwoody plant species have been detected at the sampling sites Town Park(birch leaves 5745 μg g-1 dw) and Hospital (birch leaves 5668 μg g-1 dw)in the urban-industrial zone, which has been confirmed with theenrichment factors (EF). Comparing foliar parts, enrichment with sulfurdecreases in the following order: birch leaves > linden leaves > spruceneedles. Significantly higher concentrations of sulfur (and hence EF) inmoss samples confirm the reliability of moss as a bioindicator of airpollution. In the sampled edible parts of fruits in the rural areas,substantially lower concentrations of the total sulfur have been detected(197.3-308.6 mg kg-1 dw) compared to vegetables (359.0-1119.4 mg kg-1dw). Correlations among the sampling sites, based on the concentrationsof the total sulfur in plant parts and soil of linden, birch, spruce and pineshow the closest relationship among the Town Park, Hospital and Slatina(R2 ≥ 0.8), which indicates a similar level of pollution in the urbanindustrialand rural zone.