Snežana BELANOVIC, Ivana BJEDOV, Dragan ĈAKMAK, Dragica OBRATOV-PETKOVIĆ, Ratko KADOVIĆ & Jelena BELOICA
University of Belgrade Faculty of Forestry, Kneza Višeslava 1, e-mail:jelena.beloica@sfb.bg.ac.rs

INFLUENCE OF Zn ON THE AVAILABILITY OF Cd AND Cu TO VACCINIUM SPECIES IN UNPOLLUTED AREAS – A CASE STUDY OF STARA PLANINA MT. (SERBIA)

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This paper presents a study of Zn, Cu and Cd availability to three Vaccinium species (V. myitillus,V. uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea) in the natural field conditions of Stara Planina Mt. (East Serbia). The Vacciniumspecies are often used for both consumption and production of different pharmaceutical products. It has beenfound that some species of this genus are tolerant to the high content of trace elements, which makes themhighly recommended for many phytoremediation programs. The study was conducted at two localities (BabinZub and Javor) whose dominant soil type is Dystric Leptosol. At both localities the soil was sampled fromsoil profiles in eight sites. At each sampling site the soil was sampled at depths of 0-5, 5-10, 10 -20 and 20 -40 cm, and for each species the plant material studied was collected from a 10x10 m square plot. The air driedsoils and plant material were milled and digested with aqua regia. The aqua regia-extractable content of traceelements was measured. The content of trace elements extractable with the DTPA chelat agent is defined asmobilisable metals. The contents of trace elements (Cd, Cu and Zn) in the extracts were determined by AAS.The contents of aqua regia-extractable trace elements in the studied soil were lower than the limit values formultifunctional use. The highest concentrations of Cd and Zn were measured in V. uliginosum, and of Cu inV. myrtillus. The correlation found between the content of trace elements in plants and trace elements in thesoil is important for a better understanding of their interactions, as well as for the intensive use of Vacciniumspecies in food production in the investigated region of Serbia.