The load of heavy metals leaching from grassland in central Ner River valley

Abstract

Łódź is the largest Polish city in the zone of the main watershed of the country. The watershed zone offered a dense network of small streams, mostly belonging to the Ner River catchment. The use of the Ner River as a collector of industrial sewage caused the accumulation of high amounts of heavy metals in the river sediments and arable land, intensively fertilised with the waters of the Ner River for more than 40 years. Due to the continuation of irrigations in the river valley, water with a substantially lower degree of contamination with organic substance and biogens returns to Ner from the grassland complexes. The objective of the study is the determination whether improvement of water quality subject to circulation within the grassland complexes also concerns heavy metals. The study area covers grassland complexes in the middle section of the Ner River valley, between the weir in Charbice Górne and Jeżew. Due to the variability of acidic-alkaline and oxidation-reduction conditions caused by variable moisture of the soil containing high amounts of allochtonic (post-sewage) organic matter, the observed grassland complexes show liability in terms of retention and release of the analysed metals to Ner. In summer 2018 on the analysed grassland complexes, conditions favouring the emission of all studied metals occurred. This evidences what the discontinuation of irrigation of grassland complexes, previously irrigated with sewage from Łódź, can lead to. The comparison of sites located along the course of the Ner River also provides a complex image of changes in concentrations, with evident fluctuations of metal concentrations.