OCCURRENCE OF HEAVY METALS IN AQUATIC MACROPHYTES COLONISING SMALL AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS

Concentration of heavy metals in plant tissues results from the total level of contamination of the ecosystem and the degree of development of a species, ecological form and phenophase. Some aquatic plants have a particularly great capacity to accumulate heavy metals and may be classified as hyperaccumulators. The studies of accumulation intensity of heavy metals by macrophytes in five water reservoirs situated in the General Dezydery Chlapowski Landscape Park indicated great variability of Al, Cu, Pb and Zn in both underground and aboveground plant organs. Most plants accumulated elements in surface layers of the rhizomes, mainly in the epidermis and in the cortex mesophyll. The greatest amounts of the analysed elements were found in rhizomes of Oenanthe aquatica (L.).