ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF SOILS AND PLANTS IN THE TOWN PYRAMIDEN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS (SVALBARD)
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| Year of publication | 2014 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Pyramiden is nowadays abandoned Russian settlement and coal mining town. It is situated in the centre of Svalbard archipelago. The mining town was established and developed in the first half of last century by Dutch and later by Soviet and Russian mining companies. In the year 1998 the mine was closed and the town evacuated. Hence in this town a direct anthropogenic impact on Arctic terrestrial ecosystem can be studied. The soil samples from 13 localities in this town and its surroundings were collected. The plant coverage of all sampling points was determined and plant samples were collected too. Soil samples were digested using aqua regia according to ISO 11466 and also using Mehlich III extractant. Plant samples were mineralized with 4 ml concentrated HNO3 and 2 ml 30% H2O2 in microwave mineralizer. In both plant and soil samples selected elements, cations and anions were determined (ICP-OES spectrometer iCAP 6500 Duo, Thermo, Great Britain; AAS Spektrometer ContrAA 700, Analytik Jena; AMA-245). Higher contents of Cd, Cu and Mo in soils were detected. In soils strong positive correlations in contents of Fe-Cd and Ni-Co and negative correlation of Mg-Co were found. In plant samples (Salix polaris) excessive amount of Fe and Zn was determined. Some elements show correlations between contents in soils and plant parts (e.g. Al, Ca, K and Mo have negative and Mg positive correlation between the topsoil and stems). Plant/soil transfer factors (TF) for some elements were calculated. Higher TF of Zn and lower TF of Cd was observed. |
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