Industrial soils near Zn-Pb mines and metallurgical plants in the vicinity of Olkusz (southern Poland) are exposed to high environmental stress related to heavy metal pollution (Zn, Pb, Cd, Mn, Fe, Tl and As) from waste disposal sites and primary ores. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometry analyses (EDS) and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) were used to analyse rhizosphere soil samples from the area. The mineral composition of the rhizosphere soils was determined. Carbonates of lead, cadmium and zinc, arsenic-lead sulphosalts and other minerals occurring on the root epiderm are described. Mineral aggregates of secondary origin include polymineralic spherules containing high concentrations of Zn (up to 2.3%), Pb (up to 0.7%), Fe (up to 23%), Cd (up to 427 mg kg-¹) and Tl (up to 139 mg kg-¹). Processes on the rhizoplane, and in the zone where plant-root exudation solutions are active, promote the crystallization of metalliferous minerals. ESEM is recommended as an efficient method for examining alteration occurring in the rhizosphere environment.

The sampling and analysis properties of 1-stage and 2-stage filter-pack methods were studied in detail in monitoring of sulphur and nitrogen containing inorganic gases and particles (sulphur dioxide, sulphate, sum of nitric acid and nitrate and total ammonium). The limit of detection and the limit of quantitation for 24-h samples were estimated using the results of a short-term field experiment completed with available data from long-term monitoring and internal quality assurance. Furthermore, the combined expanded measurement uncertainty including sampling and analysis (Uₜₒₜ) was estimated for filter-pack methods in order to give a tool for distinguishing long-term trends in air quality from the measurement variability. Uₜₒₜ was found to be very near the analytical uncertainty when measuring higher air concentration levels, being ± 4.0% for sulphur concentrations > 1.0 μg m⁻³, ± 3.0% for sulphate concentrations > 0.5 μg m⁻³, ± 3.5% for the sum of nitrate and nitric acid concentrations > 0.3 μg m⁻³ and ± 4.5% for total ammonium concentrations > 0.8 μg m⁻³. At the lower air concentration range Uₜₒₜ increases significantly due to the field blank values. The precision of the 24-h filter-pack sample results expressed by means of modified median absolute difference (M.MAD) and coefficient of variance (CoV) gave 8.3% for sulphur dioxide and 5.4% for particulate sulphate. For the sum of gaseous nitric acid and particulate nitrate the CoV was 5.5% and for total ammonium 4.3%. In addition the suitability of the 24-h filter-pack methods in weekly sampling was proved.

Heavy metal phytoextraction is a soil remediation technique, which makes use of plants in removing contamination from soil. The plants must thus be tolerant to heavy metals, adaptable to soil and climate characteristics, and able to take up large amounts of heavy metals. Most of the high biomass productive plants such as, maize, oat and sunflower are plants, which do not grow in cold climates or need intensive care. In this study three “weed” plants, Borago officinalis; Sinapis alba L. and Phacelia boratus were investigated for their ability to tolerate and accumulate high amounts of Cd and Pb. Pot experiments were performed with soil containing Cd and Pb at concentrations of up to 180 mg kg⁻¹ and 2,400 mg kg⁻¹ respectively. All three plants showed high levels of tolerance. Borago officinalis; and Sinapis alba L. accumulated 109 mg kg⁻¹ and 123 mg kg⁻¹ Cd, respectively at the highest Cd spiked soil concentration. Phacelia boratus reached a Cd concentration of 42 mg kg⁻¹ at a Cd soil concentration of 100 mg kg⁻¹. In the case of Pb, B. officinalis and S. alba L. displayed Pb concentrations of 25 mg kg⁻¹ and 29 mg kg⁻¹, respectively at the highest Pb spiked soil concentration. Although the Pb uptake in P. boratus reached up to 57 mg kg⁻¹ at a Pb spiked soil concentration of 1,200 mg kg⁻¹, it is not suitable for phytoextraction because of its too low biomass.

Lake Victoria and its basin supports more than 30 million people, while its fishes are exported the world over. This second largest fresh water body is however experiencing stress due to eutrophication, sedimentation, declining levels and more recently the motor vehicle sector. This contribution examines the general pollution from motor vehicle and gives an in-depth analysis of motor vehicle washing along the lakeshore. The results indicate the water samples from the motor vehicle washing and urban runoff points to be slightly acidic (i.e., average pH of 6.7) and average Total Phosphorus levels of 0.4 and 2.4 ppm respectively. This implies that there was high soap input at these points. The conductivity for the motor vehicle washing points averaged at 150 μS/cm, while the urban runoffs point was more varied ranging from below 150 μS/cm to over 400 μS/cm (average 301 μS/cm). A positive correlation coefficient of more than 0.7 is obtained between the total daily count of vehicles and each of the water quality parameter tested. This signifies a strong correlation between motor vehicle related activities and the pollution of the lake. In general, the motor vehicle industry is found to have a noticeable negative effect on the Lake.

We studied the seasonal cycle of the coupling between atmospheric denoxification processes and in-situ daytime formation of gas phase HNO₃ using a photochemical air pollution model. The model is constrained with urban atmospheric boundary layer observations of O₃, NO₂ and NO made in Ciudad Real, central Spain. The highest daytime HNO₃ mixing ratio of 0.3 ppbv was predicted to occur in summer, following a modelled OH concentration peak of ∼1.4 × 10⁶ molecules cm⁻³ and subsequent reaction with NO₂. During winter, calculated values of HNO₃ are lower due to less incoming radiation and higher wet removal of atmospheric HNO₃. The predicted mixing ratios are in good agreement with observations of atmospheric HNO₃ at similar urban environments in central Spain. Additionally, a marked seasonal cycle is predicted with minimum HNO₃ concentrations occurring in winter, indicative that traffic emissions and photochemistry dominate the in-situ formation of gas phase HNO₃ at this location. This process has implications in the removal of NOₓ from the urban atmosphere.

We investigated the relationships between the composition and structure of macroinvertebrate communities and some environmental variables over a year in four basins of the Etueffont landfill leachate (Belfort, France) using co-inertia analysis. Culicidae larvae were the dominant macroinvertebrate group in the studied basins, contributing to 87% of the total zoobenthos density, followed by Corixidae (8.8%), Chironomids (2.5%) and other larvae (each <1%). The lowest density of chironomid larvae was recorded in the first basin which is used as a discharge system for the leachate produced by the landfill. In basin 4, however, the Baetidae, Orthocladiinae (Orthocladius spp., Chaetocladius spp. and Isocladius spp.) and Tanypodinae (Psectrotanypus spp.) developed favoured by low levels in ammonia, COD, BOD, EC, metals and high oxygen concentrations. The co-inertia analysis illustrated both temporal and spatial variabilities in the basins and revealed a strong relationship between environmental conditions and benthic macroinvertebrates assemblages. This ordination technique showed that the chironomid community structure might be used successfully to differentiate between sites with different levels and types of pollution.

Buffer capacity analysis of open atmospheric gas-liquid systems containing main acidic and basic atmospheric pollutants was carried out. Usually the buffer capacity is considered as a function of pH as an independent variable. In this work the buffer capacity is analysed including the dependence of pH on the composition of a system. Such an approach allows finding an important, from the viewpoint of atmospheric water acidification, relationship between the gas phase composition and the buffer capacity. It was found that buffer capacity of the open gas-liquid systems may be very high and it may cause the liquid phase pH to remain at low levels. The buffer capacity of the analysed systems is most strongly affected by the simultaneous presence of ammonia and strong acids in the gas phase. The higher concentrations of strong acid gases the lower NH₃ concentration is sufficient to achieve high buffer capacity. In the presence of strong acid gases, calcium ions affect both the buffer capacity and the liquid phase pH only at low NH₃ concentrations. High buffer capacity of open gas-liquid systems may be one of the reasons why the reduction in emissions of acidic gas pollutants has little effect on decrease in atmospheric water acidity.

Long-term nutrient concentration trends and load variations at six monitoring stations on four canals in the Southern Indian River Lagoon (Florida, USA) were evaluated using the Estimate Trend (Estrend) and Load Estimator (Loadest) programs. The results of trend analysis on nutrient concentrations suggested that the nutrient trend patterns were spatially variable. Increasing trends were most often observed in orthophosphate and/or total phosphorus at five stations. Significantly increased annual loads were observed for orthophosphate at four stations from 1979 through 2004. The median concentrations of ammonia (0.05 to 0.10 mg l-¹) were greater than the State of Florida surface water quality criteria of class III freshwater body for ammonia. The median concentrations of total phosphorus (138 to 376 μg l-¹) were greater than the USEPA ambient water quality criteria recommendation for the study area (Nutrient Ecoregion XIII). Nutrient (phosphorus and nitrogen) loads observed in this study are likely to impair the water quality in the Southern Indian River Lagoon.

A simple and very sensitive method determining microgram quantities of indium in soil has been developed. The spectrophotometric method (ε = 1.74 x 10⁵ l mol⁻¹ cm⁻¹) based on the mixed complex In (III) with Chrome Azurol S and benzyldodecyldimethylammonium bromide was used for the analysis. A preliminary separation is made by extracting indium into butyl acetate from 5 M HBr solution. The selectivity of indium extraction and determination in the presence of macro- and micro components of soil was studied. Prior reduction of Fe (III) to Fe (II) with ascorbic acid prevents its co-extraction with indium. Indium was determined in synthetic mixtures corresponding to soil compositions and real samples of soil from different agricultural and industrial regions of Poland. The content of indium was found from the calibration graph (in the range, 0.12-0.48 μg/ml; r = 0.9991) obtained after extraction. The precision was satisfactory: % RSD (n = 6) ranged from 2.7 to 8.2. The average indium standard recovery ranged from 95 to 101%. Analysis using an ICP-OES method gave comparable results.

Plant age affects its elemental uptake and biomass accumulation, which is important for the application of plants in phytoextraction. In this research, we evaluated the effects of plant age on arsenic accumulation by arsenic hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata after growing in an arsenic-contaminated soil for 8 weeks. The study used a completely randomized design consisting of four plant ages (2, 4, 10 and 16 months) with four replications each. While the fronds of the 2 month old plants contained 36% more arsenic than those of the 4 and 16 month old plants, they were lower in roots. After 8 weeks of growth, the final frond biomass increased by 39, 6.9, 2.0 and 1.1 times compared to the initial frond biomass, from youngest to oldest, respectively. Higher phosphorus and iron accumulation in the roots of older plants may have affected the plant's efficiency to bioconcentrate and transfer arsenic from the roots to the fronds. Greater metabolic activity and higher rate of biomass production lead to higher As accumulation and removal by young plants. This research demonstrated that the use of young plants can be an effective strategy to reduce the time to remediate an As-contaminated site.