Heavy Metals in the Soil-Plant-Animal System in the Area of Natural Geochemical Anomaly

Due to the increasing technogenic load on the biosphere, the problem of the excessive input of heavy metals (HMs) into the food chains of ecosystems is becoming more and more urgent. The presence in the environment of HMs in concentrations exceeding the background values may result either from techn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Russian journal of ecology 2003-07, Vol.34 (4), p.281-283
Main Authors: Mikheeva, E V, Zhigal'skii, O A, Mamina, V P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Heavy metals
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Summary:Due to the increasing technogenic load on the biosphere, the problem of the excessive input of heavy metals (HMs) into the food chains of ecosystems is becoming more and more urgent. The presence in the environment of HMs in concentrations exceeding the background values may result either from technogenic pollution or from the presence of a natural geochemical anomaly (Kovda, 1985). The biological effects of technogenic pollution have been studied extensively, whereas the influence on the biota of the unique soil composition in natural geochemical anomalies has received little attention. Our research deals with the soil-plant-animal system in the area of natural geochemical anomaly underlain by ultrabasic rocks enriched with elements of the iron family (Cu, Ni, Co, and Cr) (Kovda, 1985; Perel'man and Kasimov, 1999). The study area was near the village of Uralets (Prigorodnyi raion, Sverdlovsk oblast), in a region with ultrabasic rocks. The control (background) area was in the southeast of the Visim State Biosphere Reserve.
ISSN:1067-4136
1608-3334
DOI:10.1023/A:1024506101144