Assessment of the Nutritional Status of Rocket Salad (Eruca Sativa) in Technogenically Affected Soils

Abstract

In this article is studied Cinnamonic Forest soils and weakly developed soils (Regosols), technogenically affected by heavy metals, granulated and ungranulated coke powder from the industrial zone of Kremikovtsi metallurgical plant, as well as a natural Leached Cinnamonic Forest soil from the village of Seslavtsi, Sofia region. The technogenically affected soils are characterized by slightly alkaline pH, weak availability of nitrogen, very weak of phosphorous and normal of potassium. Organic matter content in these soils is high, 5.2%, 11.8% and 17.5% due to the coke additives. With the four soils a greenhouse experiment was set up with rocket salad (Eruca sativa Mill) as a test plant. In two of the variants, the soils were additionally contaminated with copper, 500 and 1000 mg/kg. On the three technogenically affected soils the yields are several times lower than on the control soil. There is a tendency of a decrease of the rocket salad yield with adding copper in all the soils, except in the technogenically affected leached Cinnamonic Forest soil (Profile 7). Phosphorous content in plants in the technogenically affected soils is lower than in the control soil and decreases in the variants with copper addition. Higher sodium contents in these soils are also observed in all the variants excluding the control soil. Pollution with copper has a different effect on the macroelement status in the natural Cinnamonic Forest soil and the weakly developed techno- genically affected soils.