Acta Facultatis Ecologiae - Technická univerzita vo Zvolene

55
ACTA FACULTATIS ECOLOGIAE, 17: 55– 59 Zvolen (Slovakia), 2007
THE USAGE OF HERB SPECIES FOR IDENTIFICATION
OF THE MERCURY LOAD IN THE ENVIRONMENT
Hana OLLEROVÁ 1 , Andrea MARUŠKOVÁ 1 , Oľga KONTRIŠOVÁ 1 & Jaroslav KONTRIŠ 2
1
Department of Environmental Enginnering, Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences,
Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 53 Zvolen, Slovak Republic, e-mail: ollerova@vsld.tuzvo.sk,
andrea.maruskova@gmail.com, kontris@vsld.tuzvo.sk
2
Departement of Phytology, Faculty of Forestry, Technical University in Zvolen, T. G. Masaryka 24, 960 53 Zvolen,
Slovak Republic, e-mail: jkontris@vsld.tuzvo.sk
ABSTRACT
Ollerová, H., Marušková, A., Kontrišová, O., Kontriš, J.: The Usage of Herb Species for Identification
of the Mercury Load in the Environment
The paper is focused on investigation of mercury accumulation in synanthropic herb species at chosen
localities in Slovakia. Mercury, which incomes to plants by atmospheric deposition, belongs to the important
environmental pollutants. In general, there is low availability of the soil Hg for plants. With the view
to determination of Hg content, there were sampled leaves of Achillea millefolium L., Artemisia vulgaris
L. and Tanacetum vulgare L. from 56 localities in Slovenské stredohorie Mts, Slovenské rudohorie Mts,
Fatransko-tatranská Area and Podunajská Lowland. Soil was sampled at the same localities from the depth
5–20 cm. All samples were analysed with AMA 254. Hg concentrations in plants were in range from 0.010
to 9.857 mg.kg –1 . Over-limited values (upper than 0.12 mg.kg –1 ) were noticed in Slovenské rudohorie Mts
and in Fatransko-tatranská Area. On the basis of transfer factors, it is possible to speak about fact, that these
species are not active accumulators of Hg from soil. Despite it, they are species with great area of occurrence,
so they are very useful for comparing Hg accumulation within many areas in Slovakia.
Key words: mercury, accumulation, leaves, herb species
INTRODUCTION
Plants very sensitively react on all outside
anthropogenic influences therefore they could be
very useful as indicators of environmental quality.
There are many hazardous elements which refer to
environmental pollution from natural but mainly
from anthropogenic sources. One of the oldest
toxic heavy metals used in industry is mercury.
Nowadays wide usage of mercury in energetics and
traffic, chemical, electrotechnic, metallurgical and
mining industry caused substantial contamination
of environment. In the long run, mercury migrate to
the human food chain and it influences the human
organism in negative way.
Intensity of plant contamination with heavy
metals is unavoidable to evaluate in dependence
on plant species. High content of mercury in plant
tissues can be result of natural Hg content in bedrock
and soil or it is result of pollution with Hg 2+
compounds from various human activities [1]. So
plants are able to uptake the mercury with roots
from soil, through stomas from atmosphere and by
leaves adsorption using dry or wet deposition. In
general, availability of Hg for plants is low and it
has an accumulation tendency in roots. However,
Hg barriers in roots can be destroyed by high Hg
content in soil [2]. According to Bencko et al. [3]
air deposition represents up to 90 % of total Hg content
in plants. Prevailing part of Hg in atmosphere
(more than 90 %) is in elementary form, the rest
presents Hg 2+ compounds and only small part is in
organic form. Long time period of persisting of elementary
Hg in atmosphere (1.5–2 years) allows its