DISTRIBUTION COEFFICIENTS OF METALS IN SOIL AND PLANTS AS INDICATORS OF PHYSICAL – CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SOIL
Relation of concentration of metals in soil and plants can present very important indicator of physical – chemical properties of soil and plants, because it could be the base for estimating the level of metal content in plants and contamination, as well as the mobility of ionic metal forms at phases. Experimental work includes metal's intake by vegetables from both contaminated and noncontaminated soil, and determined concentrations are used for calculation of distribution coefficients in soil and plants for some elements such as zinc, cadmium, lead and copper. Experiments have been performed in laboratory conditions and distribution coefficients obtained in this work present indicator of level of plant contamination and physical – chemical changes at equilibrium phases. Obtained results showed that the soil conditions dictate the intake of ionic forms of heavy metals by vegetable root, and the intake is mostly dependent on physical – chemical properties of soil such as pH; CEC; electrical conductivity, and other.