Biogeochemistry of Impact Regions: the Role of Edaphic and Phytocoenotic Environmental Factors

Abstract

The paper addresses the removal of chemical elements by suprasoil and subsoil phytomasses of herbaceous phytocenoses and their subsequent return to soil during decomposition of plant remnants. The obtained results allowed us to evaluate the biogeochemical cycles of essential (Zn, Cu) and toxic (Pb, Cd) elements in natural biogeocenoses of the Middle Urals. It has been shown that the intensity of such an exchange in areas subjected to variable anthropogenic impact is determined not only by the direct influence of mobile forms of chemical elements, which are contained in soils and operate as environmental pollutants, but also by a combination of edaphic (physicochemical parameters of soils), coenotic (abundance and correlation of agrobotanical groups in phytocenosis) and microbiological (level of evolution of soil microbiocenosis) conditions. © 2020, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.