Pollutant exposure and chemical composition of plants

Pollutant Exposure and Chemical Composition of Plants Let us consider the influence of various exposure factors on the chemical composition of plant species in the arctic islands. It seems the most influential factor is the distance from the ocean shore. For example, in arctic willow growing a few meters from the tide line, the content of Zn, Cu, Pb, and Ni was higher than that of the same plant 

For a comparison, the mobile forms of trace metals were extracted from the local geological rocks, as water-soluble and 1.0 N HCl-soluble forms. The results are shown in Table 3. 

We can see that the content of trace metals in water extraction is very low. This means that the direct involvement of these metals in biogeochemical cycles is very restricted. The significant increase of metal contents in acid-soluble form was shown only for Fe, Mn and, partly, for Zn. These data testify the importance of atmospheric deposition for the Arctic ecosystems as a source of nutrients. 

The supply of sea salts and trace metals via precipitation appears to contribute to the elevated content of water-soluble forms of alkaline and earth-alkaline elements and trace metals in the uppermost soil layer. 

A high amount of various nutrients and trace metals is retained in peat and dead plant residues and thus temporarily eliminated from the biogeochemical cycles and pollutants exposure to human and ecosystem health. The period of this elimination depends on the solubility of these metals. It has been shown (Dobrovolsky, 1994) that 

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