Slađana ALAGIĆ¹, Snežana TOŠIĆ² & Aleksandra PAVLOVIĆ^2
1University of Belgrade, Technical faculty Bor, Department of Environmental Protection, Vojske Jugoslavije 12, 19210 Bor, Serbia, sladjaal@yahoo.com, salagic@tf.bor.ac.rs
²University of Nis, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, Department of Chemistry, Višegradska 33, 18000 Niš, Serbia
sneskat@yahoo.com
²University of Nis, Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics, Department of Chemistry, Višegradska 33, 18000 Niš, Serbia
petra1974@yahoo.com

NICKEL CONTENT IN DECIDUOUS TREES NEAR COPPER MINING AND SMELTING COMPLEXBOR (EAST SERBIA)

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Excessive amounts of nickel (Ni) in the environment may represent a potential risk for all living organisms, including humans. Regions with massive mining, smelting and other industrial activities are especially endangered. One of such regions is the Bor region (East Serbia), whichis known for its copper mine, but also as one of the most polluted industrial and urban centers of the whole Balkan peninsula. A long-term monitoring of air-quality parameters in this area gives evidence of extremely high pollution by heavy metals such as: Cu, Zn,Pb, Cd and As. High levels of these elements are recently detected in soil and plant biota, but the knowledge of Ni levels is still missing. In this study, spatial soil and organs of lime and birch were collected from polluted zones and analyzed by ICP-OES to determine Ni accumulation. The results from the data analysis showed that there was no severe pollution by this trace element. Also, it was noticeable that the uptake and behavior of Ni in trees was regulated in a different way than for other heavy metals. Lime and birch gave us very useful information about the state of the environment of Bor and its surroundings and proved themselves to be suitable candidates for biomonitoring purposes. Unfortunately, the values of biological accumulation coefficients (BCF<1, MR<1) show that both plants have a very low rate of uptake, which limits their use in phytoremediation.