Dragica Stanković

Nickel content in plants and soil in the area of the protected natural resource “Avala” - Belgrade

The purpose of this research is above all focused on the aim of determining the load of ecosystem or rather soil and plants with the heavy metal Ni and the level of accummulation in this area so that on the basis of the obtained results adequate protection measures could be timely taken. The research of nickel (Ni) content in the leaves of herbs and woody plants growing under urban conditions in comparison with the nickel concentrations in the plant leaves in the protected natural resource “Avala” (16 km away from Belgrade) indicates that the recorded values of nickel concentrations by locations are statistically significantly different and range from A to F on locations 1, 2 and 3 while on location 4 in urban conditions the values range from A to B in accordance with Duncan’s Test.

Leaf morphometric characteristics variability of different beech provenances in juvenile development stage

The taxonomic status of beech from the Balkan Peninsula is not yet clearly defined. There is no agreement among different authors about the morphological characteristics discriminating between the Balkan and European and/or Eastern beech. For most characteristics, the mean values are different but the ranges of variation overlap considerably. Provenance trial of beech established in Serbia, at the locality Debeli Lug, has provided an opportunity for research of interprovenance variability at the level of leaf morphometric characteristics in juvenile development stage. Research included 10 provenances originating from the Western Balkans (Serbian provenance 36 and 38; Croatian provenance 24 and 25; Bosnian provenance 30 and 32) and from Central Europe (German provenance 47 and 49; Austrian provenance 56 and Hungarian provenance 42), where following morphometric characteristics were analyzed: leaf length (Ll), leaf width (Lw), petiole lenght (Pl), leaf base width on 1 cm (Blw), number of veins - left (Vl), number of veins - right (Vr), distance between 3rd and 4th vein - left (Dv 3-4). The results of this research show existence of clear differentiation among provenances from the Western Balkan and from Central Europe, from the point of leaf dimensions, number of veins and leaf base width. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR31041: Establishment of Wood Plantations Intended for Afforestation of Serbia i br. 43007: Studying climate change and its influence on the environment: impacts, adaptation and mitigation]

Concentrations of manganese and iron in some woody and herbs plants

Heavy metals are the substances that indicate environmental pollution. The plants polluted with heavy metals may endanger natural environment and cause health problems in humans. In our multidisciplinary research of the concentrations of pollutants in forest ecosystems and natural environment in Belgrade, we examined the contents of heavy metals essential for plants but harmful in greater concentrations on a long-term basis. The fact that heavy metals manganese and iron are accumulated in plants to the greatest extent focused our work on determination of the level of concentrations of Mn and Fe in the vegetative parts of 8 plant types on three locations on the Avala Mountain and one location in the centre of the city of Belgrade. The analyses of heavy metals contents in plants were performed by the method of flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The examination of the existence of important differences between the average values was performed by implementation of Duncan’s test for the level of significance of 95%. The current contents of heavy metals in plants in the area of the protected natural resource Avala do not represent danger that would presently cause notable damage to forests but show the tendency of the increase of concentrations. Therefore, this issue should be constantly monitored.