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Environment International 31 (

Determining the heavy metal pollution in Denizli (Turkey) by using

Robinio pseudo-acacia L.

Ali Celika,*, AslVhan A. Kartalb, Abdullah Akdoganb, Yakup Kaskaa

aDepartment of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Pamukkale University, Denizli, TurkeybDepartment of Chemistry, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkey

Received 30 March 2004; accepted 14 July 2004

Available online 15 September 2004

Abstract

The leaves of Robinia pseudo-acacia L. (Fabaceae) were evaluated as a biomonitors of heavy metal contamination in Denizli city, Turkey.

Concentrations of Fe, Zn, Pb, Cu, Mn and Cd were determined in washed and unwashed leaves and soils collected from a wide range of sites

with different degrees of metal pollution (industry, urban roadside, suburban) and from a rural (control) site by atomic absorption spectrometry.

All the elements that measured were found to be at high levels in samples collected at industrial sites, except for lead and copper which were

found at high levels in samples collected from urban roadsides that associated with the road traffic. The strong correlation between the degree

of contamination and concentrations in all plant leaves assessed display that the leaves of R. pseudo-acacia reflect the environmental changes

accurately, and that they seem as an effective biomonitor of environmental quality in areas subjected to industrial and traffic pollutions.

D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Robinia pseudo-acacia; Heavy metals; Biomonitor; Denizli; Turkey

1. Introduction

Pollution of the environment with toxic metals has

increased dramatically since the onset of the industrial

revolution (Nriagu, 1979). Soil pollution with heavy metals,

such as cadmium, lead, chromium, copper, etc., is a problem

of concern. Although heavy metals are naturally present in

soils, contamination comes from local sources, mostly

industry (mainly non-ferrous industries, but also power

plants, iron and steel and chemical industries), agriculture

(irrigation with polluted waters, use of fertilizers, especially

phosphates, contaminated manure, sewage sludge and

pesticides containing heavy metals), waste incineration,

combustion of fossil fuels and road traffic. Long-range

transport of atmospheric pollutants adds to the metal load

and is the main source of heavy metals in natural areas

0160-4120/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2004.07.004

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 258 213 4030; fax: +90 258 212

5546.

E-mail address: acelik@pamukkale.edu.tr (A. Celik).

(European Environmental Agency, 1995). In recent years, it

has been shown that lead levels in soil and vegetation has

increased considerably due to traffic pollution i.e., usage of

leaded petrol and exhaust combustion (Otvos et al., 2003;

Koeppe, 1981; Biney et al., 1994; Onianwa and Adoghe,

1997). The problem rises as daily traffic increases (Wheeler

and Rolfe, 1979; Motto et al., 1970). Recently, a report was

made which confirmed that the main source of air pollution

in city areas of Turkey was due to the amount of traffic on

the roads using leaded petrol (Soylak et al., 2000; Ozturk

and Turkan, 1991; Aksoy et al., 2000a; Market, 1993). The

reason being, lead content of the petrol sold to consumers

throughout the country is quite high. As city population ever

increases, so does the demand for creating more industry

which adds to the problems already made. Over the years,

like many other developed countries, Turkey’s environ-

mental policies did not consider these problems an issue.

Therefore, they were not able to forecast the seriousness of

the problems which have now arisen.

Botanical materials such as fungi, lichens, tree bark, tree

rings and leaves of higher plants, have been used to detect

2005) 105–112

A. Celik et al. / Environment International 31 (2005) 105–112106

the deposition, accumulation and distribution of metal

pollution. Lower plants, especially mosses, algae and

lichens, in view of their higher capacity for metal

accumulation, are probably the organism most frequently

used for monitoring metal pollution in urban environments

(Conti and Cecchetti, 2003; Fernandez et al., 2002;

Campanella et al., 2001; Garty et al., 1997). The monitoring

of the levels of atmospheric trace metallic concentration by

using different types of biological monitors and various

vegetations had been reported (Del Rıo et al., 2002; Rao

and Dubey, 1992; Morselli et al., 2004). Heavy metals

emitted into the environment in different ways, i.e. trans-

Fig. 1. The province of Den

portation, industry, fossil fuels, agriculture, and other

human activities (Aksoy et al., 2000a). Bioaccumulation

of substances, including heavy metals, has been reported by

a number of workers. Pyatt (1999) reported the heavy metal

concentrations in the pine needles and Pyatt (2001) reported

also in another study about the heavy metal concentrations

in another acacia tree (Accacia retinoides) from Cyprus and

these plants were found to act as effective bioaccumulators

of heavy metals (Pyatt, 1999, 2001). The metal concen-

trations were also investigated in the soils and plants

(Bowell and Ansah, 1994) in Ghana. Jonnalagadda and

Nenzou (1997) investigated the spoil tips of eastern

izli as the study site.

A. Celik et al. / Environment International 31 (2005) 105–112 107

Zimbabwe and recorded enhanced concentrations of arsenic

in the leaves of Amaranthus hybridus. The most economical

and reasonable method for monitoring the heavy metal

levels in the atmosphere, is using vegetation. Scots pines

(Yilmaz and Zengin, 2004) and acacia (Aksoy et al., 2000a)

and other plants (Aksoy et al., 2000b) and other organisms

such as fishes (Rashed, 2001) were also used for

biomonitoring.

The province of Denizli, located in the Western Anatolia,

is the second biggest industry and trade centre in Turkey

(Fig. 1). It is a rapidly growing city and its present

population is estimated to be around 850.029, compared

with 315.934 in 1945. The city has a semi-arid upper cold

type of Mediterranean climate (Akman, 1982).

The aim of present study is to look into the pollution

levels of Fe, Zn, Pb, Cu, Mn and Cd using Robinio pseudo-

acacia L. as bioindicator in Denizli. R. pseudo-acacia were

selected as a biomonitor of heavy metal pollution for

numerous reasons; it grows widely in both urban and rural

areas; has a widely geographical range, ecological distribu-

tion throughout the world; and sampling, identification and

cultivation is easy and inexpensive.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Sampling area

There are many small and medium size industrial

facilities, mainly metallurgical, textile, cement, and elec-

trical supplement factories in Denizli area (Fig. 1). Samples

from the industrialized area were taken from different places

between 0 and 10 m around the factories. Preferred urban

sites for sampling were the most crowded parts of the city

centre. Leaf samples of urban roadside were collected about

2 m away from the main road. The traffic density of the road

was estimated to be 847 vehicles per hour. Suburban sites

were chosen from the edge of the city which is an outskirts

area. For uncontaminated controls, samples were taken from

Aydogdu Mount, about 40 km south of the city of Denizli.

2.2. Sample collection and preparation

The leaves of R. pseudo-acacia and soil samples were all

collected from different areas during July–August 2001. The

numbers of samples from different sites for each category

were as follows; industrial=13, urban roadside=15, sub-

urban=8, and rural area (control)=4. About 200 g (fresh

weight) of adult leaves from each direction (west, east, south

and north) of R. pseudo-acacia were collected. Leaf

selection was from the middle section of the main leafy

area of the plant. The leaf samples were then divided into

two sub-samples. One sub-sample was thoroughly washed

with running distilled water to remove dust particles, and the

other remained untreated. All leaf samples were oven-dried

at 80 8C for 24 h, milled in a micro-hammer cutter and fed

through a 0.2-mm sieve. The leaf samples were stored in

clean self-sealing plastic bags. Contamination from the

micro-hammer cutter was negligible while grinding, since it

was washed with first absolute alcohol, then with triply

distilled water after each use.

Doubly distilled water and high purity reagents were

used for all preparations of the standard and sample

solutions. Standard stock solutions containing 1000 mg

l�1 analyte were prepared from nitrate salts of Cd, Cu, Fe,

Ni, Mn and Pb in 1% HNO3 in 1-l calibrated flasks. Diluted

standard solutions and model solutions were daily prepared

from the stock standard solutions. For sediment analysis, 0.1

g of standard reference material (NRC-CRM GBW 07309

from China) was digested with aqua regia at room temper-

ature, and then heated to 95 8C. After the evolution of NO2

fumes had ceased, the mixture was evaporated almost to

dryness on a sand-bath and mixed with 8 ml of aqua regia.

The mixture was again evaporated to dryness. The resulting

mixture was filtered through an Advantec Toyo 5A filter

paper. The sample was diluted to 10 ml with distilled water.

The samples were processed as described by Perkin

Elmer (1996) for plant digestion. In this method, 1 g of

ground dried plant sample was put in 100-ml beakers. Ten

milliliters of concentrated HNO3 was added, and the beakers

covered with watch glass. Then all mixtures were left

overnight. Following day, the beaker was heated carefully

on a hot plate until the production of red NO2 fumes has

ceased. After cooling of solution, 2 ml of HClO4 was added.

Samples were heated again as long as a small part of

mixture was remained. After that, the solution was filtered

using a membrane with 0.45 Am pores, taken in a 25-ml

flask, diluted with triply distilled water, aspirated into an air-

acetylene flame and the metals were measured by flame

atomic absorption spectrometry. Owing to suppression or

enhancement of signal by the sample matrix (due to high

viscosity, chemical reaction with the analyte, etc.) encoun-

tered often in flame spectrometric methods a standard

addition technique (which tends to compensate for variation

caused by physical and chemical interferences in the sample

solution) was used in this study. Standards of Cd, Pb, Fe,

Zn, Mn and Cu (MERCK) were set by stepwise dilution of

stock-standards which were prepared using the pure metals

or analytical grade salts of the metals. Stock solutions were

prepared in 10% HNO3 and results were corrected for

reagent blanks. The reproducibility of the method used in

the present study was confirmed triplicate analysis. The

analyses were performed immediately after preparation of

samples.

A 0.5 g of soil sample was placed in glass beakers and 10

ml conc. HNO3 solution were added. Then, the sample was

heated at 150 8C for about 3 h, followed by evaporation to

near dryness. After that, 2 ml of conc. HC1O4 was added

and digestion was continued by evaporation to near dryness

again. Then, 2 ml of conc. HCl was added and heated at 150

8C for about 15 min. Finally, the sample was transferred into

25 ml volumetric flask and diluted up to the mark with

ifferentsitesofDenizli

Cu

Cd

Mn

T-test

Unwashed

Washed

T-test

Unwashed

Washed

T-test

Unwashed

Washed

T-test

***

16.92F2.01

8.46F0.83

***

3.70F1.45

1.99F0.82

***

349.2F1.38

229.2F12.28

***

***

20.81F1.39

10.15F1.26

***

1.33F0.17

0.756F0.09

***

221.3F9.47

175.3F4.89

***

***

12.22F1.63

8.125F0.65

***

0.805F0.09

0.570F0.03

***

147.8F3.29

95.4F3.27

***

*5.64F0.08

5.28F0.09

*0.365F0.01

0.325F0.01

*53.6F3.01

43.3F2.18

*

***

***

***

***

***

***

A. Celik et al. / Environment International 31 (2005) 105–112108

doubly distilled water. A Cole-Parmer micro-filtration

apparatus with membrane filter (0.45 Am pore size

manufactured by Micro Filtration Systems) was used for

the filtration of the aqueous phase before metal determi-

nation. Detection of the metals was carried out with flame

atomic absorption spectrophotometer (FAAS) (Perkin Elmer

AA Analyst 700 Model, Flame Atomic Absorption Spec-

trophotometer) connected with deuterium background cor-

rection, hollow cathode lamps (HCl) and acetylene burner.

The absorption measurements of the metals were performed

under the conditions recommended by the manufacturer.

Unless otherwise stated, all chemicals used were of

analytical reagent grade. Triply distilled water was used

throughout the experiments. To carry out experiments, the

final concentrations of metal standard solutions were freshly

made by diluting the stock standard solution with water.

2.3. Statistical analysis

Analytical results have been evaluated by using MINI-

TAB computer program. The standard error values of the

means were calculated to compare the site categories. To

determine the significance of washing of the leaves, a

paired t-test was performed, comparing heavy metal

contents of washed and unwashed plants, for each type of

site. F-test (ANOVA) has been performed to compare

different localities.

Table

1

Heavymetal

concentrations(Agg�1dry

weight)andstatisticalevaluationin

leaves

ofR.pseudo-acaciacollectedfrom

d

Site

NFe

Pb

Zn

Unwashed

Unwashed

Unwashed

Unwashed

Unwashed

T-test

Unwashed

Washed

Industry

13

3087.0F70.4

89.91F5,88

206.2F17.2

206.2F17.2

206.2F17.2

***

89.91F5,88

43.49F2,03

Urban roadside

15

414.4F11.2

139.0F11.4

72.69F4.05

72.69F4.05

72.69F4.05

***

139.0F11.4

53.05F7.44

Suburban

8255.01F3.76

33.20F2.30

21.84F1.34

21.84F1.34

21.84F1.34

***

33.20F2.30

21.01F2.16

Control

4100.2F11.4

13.02F0.11

15.11F0.11

15.11F0.11

15.11F0.11

*13.02F0.11

11.53F0.34

Ftest

***

***

***

***

***

***

***

*pb0.05.

***

pb0.001.

3. Results and discussion

The mean heavy metal concentrations measured in

unwashed and washed leaves and soils are shown in Tables

1 and 2. As it can be seen from these tables, all the elements

were found to be at high levels in samples collected from

industrial sites, except for lead and copper which were

found at high levels in samples collected from urban

roadsides that associated with the road traffics.

Iron was found to be at high levels in all samples from all

localities, and higher (3087) at industrial sites and lowest

(100.2) at rural areas. The concentrations of iron were also

higher in soil specimens than leaf samples (Tables 1 and 2).

As an essential element, iron was used by special enzyme

and proteins in respiration and photosynthesis reactions.

Iron was also reported as the acceleration factor in photo-

synthesis associated with accumulation of iron in chlor-

oplasts (Kim and Jung, 1993). Iron is one of the principal

elements in the Earth crust. The high values of iron detected

in this study may be partly due to the absorption from soil

by the roots of plants. Increased levels of contaminated

leaves compared to controls may be related to contami-

nation of environment with iron.

Manganese levels were also higher in sand samples than

plants as expected. Manganese minerals are widely dis-

tributed; oxides, silicates, and carbonates are the most

common. Pyrolusite and rhodochrosite are among the most

Table 2

Heavy metal concentrations (Ag g�1 dry weight) and statistical evaluation in soils collected from different sites of Denizli

Site N Fe Pb Zn Cu Cd Mn

Industry 13 3939.3F65.8 180.85F1.81 456.88F25.90 54.306F4.50 7.367F2.81 786.47F42.81

Urban roadside 15 3554.5F29.5 336.55F25.75 506.43F19.99 69.71F1.23 4.286F0.40 428.46F18.40

Suburban 18 2892.7F6.6 74.86F4.18 81.23F9.12 17.189F0.95 1.373F0.19 337.36F3.29

Control 4 2695.6F3.1 34.26F0.40 10.67F0.95 8.68F0.05 0.48F0.02 271.87F2.22

F test *** *** *** *** *** ***

*** pb0.001.

A. Celik et al. / Environment International 31 (2005) 105–112 109

common manganese minerals. The discovery of large

quantities of manganese nodules on the floor of the oceans

and rivers may become a source of manganese. The dioxide

(pyrolusite) is used as a depolarizer in dry cells, and is used

to bdecolorizeQ glass that is colored green by impurities of

iron. Manganese by itself colors glass an amethyst color,

and is responsible for the color of true amethyst. The

permanganate is a powerful oxidizing agent and is used in

quantitative analysis and in medicine (Allen, 1989). Iron

and manganese oxides play an important role in the soil in

fixing trace elements such as cobalt, copper, zinc, and nickel

as well as pollutants like lead (Norrish, 1975). The

association of these elements with manganese and iron in

soils has important implications for agriculture and plant

growth in general. Manganese is present in the NAD malic

enzyme systems found in the leaves of C4 plants. It is also

specific constituent of the photosynthetic oxygen-evolving

system in chloroplasts (Kim and Jung, 1993). The toxicity

of Mn is commonly associated with acidic soils and warm

climates. Water-soluble soil Mn appears to be better guide to

the likely occurrence of toxicity than the amounts of

exchangeable or reducible Mn, but actual values appear to

be applicable only to local circumstances. The highest levels

were recorded at industrial sites followed by urban road

sides and suburban sites.

Lead is available to plants from soil and aerosol sources.

Lead is taken up only in small measure by plant roots at the

tested areas because of the prevailing nature of the soil. The

chemical form of lead as it impacts plants is of critical

importance, however, as this is a factor in movements in to

plants, in translocation and in the toxic effectiveness of lead

within the plant. Lead pollution on a local scale is caused by

industrial emissions, and on a larger scale is caused by

emissions from motor vehicles using leaded gasoline

(Koeppe, 1981). Normal concentrations of Pb in plants are

less than 10 ppm (Kabata-Pendias and Piotrowska, 1984).

Allen (1989) considered a much lower value of 3 ppm as a

normal natural level for plants. Kabata-Pendias and Pio-

trowska (1984) considered a much lower value of 30 ppm as

an excessive or toxic level of this element. A level of 43

ppm is the threshold value indicating death of trees. Lead

contamination of plant parts underneath the ground is

caused by ingrown contaminated soil particles. Plant parts

near to the ground can be contaminated by sprayed or

rearranged soil. Lead levels exceeding index values were

primarily determined for plant parts underground. We have

not measured the lead from underground samples but our

samples were from direct vicinity of commercial emitters or

by main traffic corridors. The degree of heavy metal

concentration in the leaves is proportional to urbanization.

The main reason of high concentrations of heavy metals in

plants localized in industrial areas and in urban roadsides are

the industrial activity and the density of the traffic.

Exhausting of lead from cars is considered as one of the

major sources of contamination with Pb in Turkey. Because

unleaded petrol is expensive, drivers are forced to use the

leaded one. Additionally, some old version of the car

consumes only leaded petrol. Our values were between 11.5

and 53.0 in plant leaves; 34.2 and 336.5 in soil samples. The

highest concentrations of Pb in plants were taken from

urban roadsides.

Zinc is an essential element in all organisms and plays an

important role in the biosynthesis of enzymes, auxins and

some proteins. Plant with symptoms of Zn deficiency

experiences a retarded elongation of cells (Raven and

Johnson, 1986). Zinc is not one of the more abundant

metals in nature with an average concentration in the

lithosphere of about 80 ppm. Soil levels usually fall in the

range 10–300 ppm. Zinc was the second highest levels (min.

10, max. 206) in all specimens after the iron in our study.

The high levels of zinc in plants may cause the loss of

production and the low levels may cause deformations of

leaves (Bucher and Schenk, 2000).

Copper is a minor trace metal with 70% of the copper in

leaves contained in the chloroplast of land plants (Wilkin-

son, 1994). Plastocyanin contains copper and is an

important transporter (Govindjee, 1995). It has been

suggested that photosynthetic function is highly sensitive

to copper toxicity (Ouzounidou, 1994). Copper, similar to

Zn, is a microelement essential for all organisms and is an

important constituent of many enzymes of oxidation–

reduction reactions (Raven and Johnson, 1986). Disturban-

ces in Cu supply can cause significant modification of

biochemical processes in plants leading to lower yields and

quality of agricultural crops. An excessive supply of Cu

causes symptoms of chlorosis that are similar to the

symptoms of iron deficiency (Bergman, 1983). Kabata-

Pendias and Piotrowska (1984) reported the normal con-

centration of Cu in plants ranges from 2 to 20 ppm, and the

levels of 30 ppm as a phytotoxic level for this element. The

highest (20.81) concentrations of copper were found in

specimens collected from urban roadsides, and lowest (5.64)

A. Celik et al. / Environment International 31 (2005) 105–112110

at control sites which were at normal levels at other sites but

approaching at risky levels at urban roadsides.

Cadmium is an especially mobile element in the soil and

is taken up by plants primarily through the roots. Decisive

for transfer into plants are cadmium levels, pH values, and

humus levels. These parameters determine cadmium levels

in the soil solution and thereby the plants’ availability to

cadmium (Fahrenhors and Kornhardt, 1990). The cadmium

levels in this study were found high (up to 7.4) in soils and

low (up to 1.9) in leaves.

A comparison of the amount of metal extracted from

unwashed leaves with that from washed leaves shows that

removal of the metals from the leaves by washing was

significantly different; for example, 14.85–48.58% of the Fe

was removed by the washing procedure, depending on the

pollutant level at the sampling sites. There was substantial

aerial deposition on the leaves of all six elements, which

were removed by washing. Aksoy and Xahin (1999)

investigated Elaeagnus angustifolia as a biomonitor of

heavy metal pollutions in Kayseri, Turkey. They reported

that correlations between various elements in washed leaves

and soils were highly variable. As it can be seen from Table

1, the metal concentrations from washed and unwashed

leaves were found to be significantly different. By washing

the leaves, approximately 50% of the metals were removed.

Therefore, we suggest to consume any food and vegetables

from urban roadsides should be washed carefully before

sales and consumption.

Pollution of environment with lead is directly related

with the density of traffic and the distance of this environ-

ment from the roadside (Aksoy and Ozturk, 1997; Aksoy et

al., 2000a). Sawidis et al. (1995) studied air pollution with

heavy metals in the city of Thessaloniki (Greece) using trees

as biological indicators and reported that high levels of

heavy metals came from vehicular emissions. Schafer et al.

(1998) reported the heavy metal content in the different

plants and showed that high levels of Pb and Cu came from

vehicular emissions. In addition to traffic density, industrial

activity also tends to increase the concentration of metallic

contaminants. This is evident in the concentration of heavy

metals in the unwashed leaves of R. pseudo-acacia sampled

from industrial areas having the metal contents of 3087.0,

206.2, 89.91, 16.92, 3.70, and 349.2 for Fe, Zn, Pb, Cu, Cd,

and Mn, respectively.

Bioaccumulation of substances, including heavy metals,

has been reported by a number of workers. Pyatt (1999)

reported the heavy metal concentrations in the soil as

FeNMnNZnNCu, while these concentrations in the pine

needles as FeNMn/ZnNCu. In the contaminated site, Mn,

Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ag, and Sn were bioaccumulated by the

needles, while Au was bioaccumulated by the stems; Cu and

Zn were bioaccumulated by both stems and needles of the

Corsican pines and the tissue copper values were markedly

enhanced in material collected from the contaminated site

where a 20-fold increase occurred in the stem samples and a

180-fold increase in the samples of the needles. Pyatt (2001)

reported also in another study about the heavy metal

concentrations in another acacia tree (A. retinoides) from

Cyprus as the control leaves holding the order of

FeNMnNCu/Pb but these values in spoil sites were

FeNPbNMnNCu. These plants were found to act as effective

bioaccumulators of heavy metals (Pyatt, 1999, 2001). Our

results measured from acacia leaves were presented in Table

1. Our results were in accordance of Pyatt (2001) were in

the order of FeNMnNZnNPbNCuNCd. These elements were

found to be at high levels in industrial sites except for Pb

and Cu where the highest concentrations were found at

urban roadsides.

These metal concentrations were also investigated in the

soils and plants. Geochemical mapping of soils and some

plants has been carried out by Bowell and Ansah (1994) in

Ghana where it was noted that the distribution of this

essential nutrients Co, Cu, and Mn was largely controlled by

bedrock geology, while the geochemical dispersion of Ca, I,

Fe, Mo, Mg, P, K, Se, Na, and Zn was affected by soil and

hydromorphic processes. They noted that Fe, Mn, and Co

were largely fixed in the soil mineral fraction, Co, Cu, and

Mn were preferentially concentrated in grasses, and Mo and

Se were concentrated in browse plants. Cu uptake was

found to be antagonistic to Fe, Mo, and Zn accumulation in

all the plants they sampled. Jonnalagadda and Nenzou

(1997) investigated the spoil tips of eastern Zimbabwe and

recorded enhanced concentrations of arsenic in the leaves of

A. hybridus. Our results from soil samples were presented in

Table 2. As it can be seen from this table, the concentration

order of the metals measured were in order of FeNMnNZnN

PbNCuNCd.

Information is required on the precise limits of tolerance

of plants. The role of chronic sublethal doses of contami-

nation in bringing about facultative adaptations in plants

requires research. The concentrations of metals added to

ecosystems that bring about the changes in addition via air

pollution or waste disposal is to be made. In contaminated

forests, older leaves and fallen leaves contain some of the

highest concentrations of metals, particularly Pb, Zn, and

Cd, of the entire biomass. The concentrations of metals in

fallen leaves can increase over time in the forest floor as

metal ions exchange onto the cation exchange sites of the

decaying litter such as road sites.

A growing international awareness of inherited problems

of metal contamination in soils from mine wastes or

industrial derelict sites has led to compilation in many

countries of registers of contaminated land. In less

urbanized areas, the mean levels of heavy metals in the

leaves of R. pseudo-acacia detected significantly lower than

that of those localized in urban areas. The results obtained in

this study indicate that the leaves of R. pseudo-acacia can

accumulate high levels of heavy metals as this species of

plant were used as bioindicator in central part of the Turkey

(Aksoy et al., 2000a). The samples obtained from an

industrial area as well as from urban roadsides, which

encounter the highest human activity and vehicular density,

A. Celik et al. / Environment International 31 (2005) 105–112 111

had the highest accumulation of the heavy metal concen-

trations. Most of this contamination can clearly be traced

back to motor vehicle traffic emissions, because lead

concentrations deter were low. This distribution mined in

these soils also correlated with the gradients of heavy metal

deposits conducted by Abraham et al. (1987). The narrow

radius of effects of the motor vehicle traffic emissions were

confirmed by other investigations (Hoffmann et al., 1989).

The results of Aksoy et al. (2000a) related to lead

concentrations were relatively low in Kayseri (another city

in central part of Turkey) due to having less traffic density

compare to Denizli. This study demonstrates industry is the

main cause of heavy metal pollution is in the region of

Denizli with exception of Pb contamination. The reason for

the highest Pb concentration found on urban roadside, is the

leaded petrol consumption of cars. Not only is R. pseudo-

acacia a very common tree in the area, it is also suitable as

usage in environmental studies as a favorable bioindicator.

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