Cd and Pb in the “soil-plant” system of Holosiyiv green park area in Kyiv

In this paper, the content of metals (Cd and Pb) was investigated in soil-plant system of Holosiyiv green park area in Kyiv. Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, and has an anthropogenic load. Metals pollution in various degrees in green park areas may affect people’s health through different paths. We propose to control the lead contamination in soil because Pb concentration levels were above when compared with background values in almost all samples of soil and exceeded the maximum permissible concentration in sites of top of hills in park. Moreover, the obtained results indicated high concentrations of lead in studied plants; most of them are medicinal and traditionally used by people. The highest phytomass concentration of Pb was observed in Asarum europaeum L., whereas Impatiens parviflora DC and Urtica dioica L. had the highest plant up-taking indexes for both studied metals

Metals phytotoxicity assessment and phyto maximum allowable concentration

In this paper, the influence of metals (Cd, Pb, Cu, Co, Ni, Zn) on plants of spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was investigated in polluted sod podzolic sandy loam on layered glacial sands and calcareous deep chernozem on loamy loess soils. We propose to highlight the metals’ phytotoxicity with help of the phyto maximum allowable concentration. The Phyto Maximum Allowable Concentration is a permissible level of metals for plants in polluted soil and represents the safe degree for plants in contaminated ecosystem. The phyto maximum allowable concentration gives the possibility to estimate and to forecast the danger of metals for plants as a biological object that plays a very important role in the life of ecosystem. This approach may be applied for another metals phytotoxicity assessment for other plants

Mercury Contamination in Soil, Water, Plants, and Hydrobionts in Kyiv and the Kyiv Region

In this paper, there was investigated the content of mercury in soil, plant, water, and hydrobionts in Kyiv and in the Obukhiv district of the Kyiv region. Studied territory is characterized by high anthropogenic load. The solid waste landfill in the Obukhiv district of the Kyiv region was characterized by the highest content of Hg in soil. Hg concentration in Taraxacum officinale L. was the highest among all studied plants, hence the possibility of recommending this species for phytoremediation of mercury-polluted soils. Mercury bioaccumulation of aquatic organisms (Blicca bjoerkna L., Esox lucius L., Ceratophyllum demersum L.) was much higher than in terrestrial organisms, which indicates the significantly prevailing level of availability and accumulation of mercury for aquatic species in the water environment

Cd, Zn, Cu, Pb, Co, Ni phytotoxicity assessment

In this paper, we investigate using of probit analysis for heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Co, Ni) toxicity assessment for spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in sod podzolic sandy loam and chernozem soils. Estimation of the heavy metals phytotoxicity by means of PhLD50 value was suggested. The PhLD50 value is a doze of metal in soil that causes 50% reduction of plant biomass (mg·kg-1). According to PhLD50 value, metals can be ranked by the effect on biomass reduction as: Cd>Cu>Ni>Co>Pb>Zn (sod podzolic soil) and Cd>Cu>Ni>Co>Zn>Pb (chernozem soil). Results of the study could be useful indicators of Cu, Ni, Co, Cd, Pb and Zn phytotoxicity assessment at the growing of Hordeum vulgare (L.) in heavy metals contaminated areas. The PhLD50 value demonstrates the comparative toxicity of metals. Tight correlation between studied metals phytotoxicity for plants of spring barley and polarity shift caused by adding to organic matrix – diphenilthiocarbazone (ditizone) for studied metals was observed. This approach may be prominent for metals risk assessment. This work is an attempt to extend our investigations on correlation and methods of polarity assessment and ecotoxicological risk of different groups of contaminants

Bioaccumulation of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn in Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. in the polluted area by enterprise for the production and processing of batteries

In this paper, the concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn was investigated in soil and Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. sampling from polluted cite near the enterprises for the production and processing of batteries in the city of Dnipro in Ukraine. The obtained results of the study provided to assess plants regarding bio-monitoring and phytoremediation. Although Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. is a weed that causes serious allergic reactions in humans, this species can also have a high bioaccumulative capacity regarding metals. The metals’ concentration in roots was scientifically higher than in inflorescence part. Zn and Cu had the highest concentration in Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. although lead was characterized by the highest content of available to plants forms in the soil. The distribution of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn was highlighted in different parts of the plant. According to plant-up taking indexes studied elements can be ranked in the following descending order: Cu\u3eZn\u3eCr\u3eCd\u3ePb. Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. could be proposed for phytoremediation in Zn, Cu, Cd, Cr contaminated soils although this species is resistant for lead soil pollution

COVID-associated panic attacks: regional management aspect

The modern coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) poses a mortal threat to the populations of more than 210 countries and at the same time constitutes a real challenge to national governments. One of the pandemic problems is the fear of uncertainty, which may lead to development of panic attacks among the general population. It was established that at the national level in Ukraine, standards for provision of medical care to patients with panic attacks amid the COVID-19 pandemic have not been elaborated. The article analyses measures of regional authorities on creating an algorithm for providing the special care to patients with mental disorders during a pandemic on the basis of a specialized psychosomatic clinic

Trace metals' migration in soil to seepage water

In this paper the rate migration of trace metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn) in polluted turf-podzol sandy loam soil was investigated in lysimetric experiment. Koller’s model was applied to obtain the ranking of the metals according to their rate of migration in soil to seepage water. Among the studied metals, the most intense migrant in the soil to seepage water was lead. Lead had highest and earliest maximum concentration in seepage water. Cooper had weak migration intensity. According to metals migration ability, they can be ranked in the following descending order: Pb > Cd > Zn > Cu. Findings are relevant to assessing the metal as dangerous

Methods of Valuation of Ecosystem Assets and their Assimilation Services

An urgent problem of the modern world is the degradation of ecosystems, which requires a radically new approach to assessing and ensuring further, cost-effective use of their potential. However, the value assessment of ecosystem assets (capital) that provide assimilation and other, in particular, oxygen-producing, services to territorial communities has not yet been conducted. It is proved that if ecosystem assets are recognised as the property of territorial communities and the latter are granted the right to dispose of their property (ecosystem assets), the problem of valuation of such assets becomes a priority task. The purpose of the study is to compare scientific approaches to the valuation of ecosystem assets and develop a method for evaluating them, considering the ecosystem services that they provide to territorial communities during their life cycle. The study involves general scientific methods of economic studies and specific ones. The essential features of methods for evaluating a natural resource object are determined, which are the assessment methodology and financial and economic tools used for its practical implementation. Based on this, the analysis is conducted and the substantive features of the method of discounting cash flows (rent valuation method), cost, market prices, hedonistic pricing (price advantages), transport costs, conditional survey method, etc. are established. It is proved that these methods do not meet the requirements of value-market assessment and do not allow for an adequate assessment of the assimilation potential of ecosystems. An ecosystem asset should be considered from the standpoint of environmental safety, so the assessment methods should be different. In view of the above, the most optimal method is proposed: the value of ecosystem assets is determined by the value of the entire complex of assimilation and oxygen-producing services provided by them for their entire life cycle. The author’s method was tested on the example of poplar alley, which is part of Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, located in Kyi

Bioaccumulation of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn in Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. in the polluted area by enterprise for the production and processing of batteries

In this paper, the concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn was investigated in soil and Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. sampling from polluted cite near the enterprises for the production and processing of batteries in the city of Dnipro in Ukraine. The obtained results of the study were provided to assess the plant species through bio-monitoring and phytoremediation. Though Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. is a weed that causes serious allergic reactions in humans, this plant species can also have a high bioaccumulative capacity regarding metals. The obtained results highlighted the metals’ significantly higher concentration in roots than in the inflorescence part in Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. Among all studied metals, Zn and Cu had the highest concentration in Ambrosia artemisiifolia L., while lead was characterized by the highest bioavailable content available to plant forms in the soil. The various distribution of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn was found in different parts of the plant. According to plant-up-taking indexes studied elements can be ranked in the following descending order: Cu > Zn > Cr > Cd > Pb. Ambrosia artemisiifolia L. could be proposed for phytoremediation in Zn, Cu, Cd, and Cr contaminated soils although this species is resistant to lead soil pollution

Wide genome transcription and metabolome profiles reprogrammed by sucrose under xenobiotic constraints

Plants have developed strategies to adapt quickly to environmental changes. However, the regulation of these adaptive responses and coordination of signals network remains poorly understood for many environmental constraints. Indeed, signalling molecules play a central role in environmental stimuli and may coordinate plants development under environmental cues. Sucrose is the major transport carbohydrate in higher plants, in addition to its metabolic role; recent investigations suggested that sucrose impact the plasticity of plant development by controlling gene expression. Sucrose was also suggested as a ROS scavenger and as a signalling molecule. In this paper we showed that sucrose mitigated phenanthrene induced stress. Since, exogenous sucrose allowed growth and chlorophyll accumulation in the presence of high phenanthrene concentrations, whereas Arabidopsis development was blocked and seedlings were unable to accumulate chlorophyll in the presence of phenanthrene solely. To decipher the earlier molecular changes involved in sucrose tolerance to phenanthrene, wide transcriptional genes analysis and targeted metabolic profiling were carried out. We showed that sucrose driving plant response was associated with a deep reconfiguration of both genes expression and metabolites accumulation during the first hours of treatment, suggesting that sucrose, allowed plants to sustain the primary metabolism and to overcome the phenanthrene induced injuries