Accumulation of heavy metals in native plants growing on a contaminated Ocna de Fier Site (Romania)

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluated the distribution of heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Zn and Fe) in the topsoil and plants collected from an area contaminated by mine tailings from SW Romania (Ocna de Fier). Soils and plants samples collected were analyzed using a Varian Spectra AAS. The results indicated that the soils affected by mining activities contain the high concentrations of phytotoxic metals. At the same time, our study showed that spontaneous plant species growing on contaminated sites may have the potential for phytoremediation.