Grzegorz Siebielec

Manganese Fertilizer Requirement to Prevent Manganese Deficiency When Liming to Remediate Ni‐Phytotoxic Soils

Abstract Nickel (Ni) contamination occurred near a Ni refinery at Port Colborne, Ontario, on soils susceptible to Mn deficiency. Previous studies showed that adding limestone to remediate these soils induced Mn deficiency in plants. This greenhouse pot experiment was conducted with Welland loam and Quarry muck soils to learn the application of MnSO4 needed when these soils were limed. Limestone application, along with Mn fertilizer, allowed normal growth of oat and red beet known as sensitive to Ni phytotoxicity and Mn deficiency. Strontium (Sr)‐nitrate extractable Ni was a smooth function of slurry pH with much higher Ni extractable from the Welland loam than Quarry muck. Ni phytotoxicity was severe at low pH for the Welland loam but it was generally prevented by liming. No severe Mn deficiency was observed in this experiment when nitrogen was applied as combination of urea, ammonia, and nitrates. Manganese fertilization greatly improved Mn uptake by both crops in both soils.

Geographical location and key sensitivity issues of post-industrial regions in Europe.

Primary objectives of our work were to spatially delineate post industrial areas of the EU-27 and indicate key environmental, social and economic sensitivity issues for these regions. The density of industrial sites within NUTS-x regions for EU-27 countries was assessed by using CORINE 2000 land cover layer. A development of postindustrial society in Europe represents a strong geographic diversity. There are distinct historical and current differences between regions which form major groups, comprising similar internal characteristics and definable trends in environmental and socioeconomic sense. Regions grouped into postindustrial clusters are fundamentally different from the European average, and are facing specific problems related to global market and political changes. Eastern postindustrial regions can be characterized as socially and economically weak, exhibiting high unemployment rate, low GDP, negative population growth and a strong environmental pressure, represented by a high density of dump sites. Most of the western EU postindustrial areas have been successfully recovered and moved into new economy as shown by most of the indicators. In urban postindustrial zones, however, emission sources of pollutants seem to continually be a major problem—not necessarily in terms of exceeding thresholds, but through a remarkable difference in the amount of pollutants produced relative to other regions.

Long term insight into biodiversity of a smelter wasteland reclaimed with biosolids and by-product lime

Smelter wastelands containing high amounts of zinc, lead, cadmium, and arsenic constitute a major problem worldwide. Serious hazards for human health and ecosystem functioning are related to a lack of vegetative cover, causing fugitive dust fluxes, runoff and leaching of metals, affecting post-industrial ecosystems, often in heavily populated areas. Previous studies demonstrated the short term effectiveness of assisted phytostabilisation of zinc and lead smelter slags, using biosolids and liming. However, a long term persistence of plant communities introduced for remediation and risk reduction has not been adequately evaluated. The work was aimed at characterising trace element solubility, plant and microbial communities of the top layer of the reclaimed zinc and lead smelter waste heaps in Piekary Slaskie, Poland, 20 years after the treatment and revegetation. The surface layer of the waste heaps treated with various rates of biosolids and the by-product lime was sampled for measuring chemical and biochemical parameters, which are indicative for metals bioavailability as well as for microorganisms activity. Microbial processes were characterised by enzyme activities, abundance of specific groups of microorganisms and identification of N fixing bacteria. Plant communities of the area were characterised by a percent coverage of the surface and by a composition of plant species and plant diversity. The study provides a strong evidence that the implemented remediation approach enables a sustainable functioning of the ecosystem established on the toxic waste heaps. Enzyme activities and the count of various groups of microorganisms were the highest in areas treated with both biosolids and lime, regardless their rates. A high plant species diversity and microbial activities are sustainable after almost two decades from the treatment, which is indicative of a strong resistance of the established ecosystem to a metal stress and a poor physical quality of the anthropogenic soil formed by the treatment.