Soil and plant pollution by potentially toxic elements in Slovakia

Abstract

The Problem of soil and plant pollution by heavy metals in Slovakia is evaluated in this study. The measured data on the main risk elements have been obtained from a soil-monitoring grid in Slovakia, which consists of 318 agricultural sites. Analytical procedures of Cd, Pb, Cr, Ni, Zn, Cu (extracted by 2 mol/l HNO3 and by 0.05 mol/l EDTA) as well as the total content of the described elements including Hg have been used for soil samples. Also the plants collected at the same sampling sites were analysed for their Cd, Pb, Cr and Hg contents. On the basis of the obtained results it may be concluded that significant pollution was determined only on 0.4% of the total soil cover in Slovakia. The significant correlation was determined between the soil available heavy metal content (extracted by 0.05 mol/l EDTA) and plant content. Potentially toxic elements were accumulated in the plant biomass only on heavily polluted soils.