Ecological and Geochemical Assessment of Heavy Metal Accumulation in Soil of Different-Aged Ampelocoenoses in the Slope Landscape of the Fruška Gora Mountain Range, Republic of Serbia

The aim of the present research was the ecological and geochemical assessment of the lateral migration of heavy metals in the upper horizons of brown forest residual-calcareous soil (Eutric Cambisol) in a transit geochemical landscape under different-aged vineyards grown on the slopes of the Fruska Gora mountain range in the Republic of Serbia. The practical significance of the work was to clarify the level of ecological risk in the cultivation of different-aged vineyards in the conditions of slope erosion processes. Soil samples were taken from rows of vines in transit slope landscapes at depths of 0-5, 5-15 and 15-30 cm. The total content of heavy metals in soil and grape berries was determined by atomic adsorption method after microwave decomposition. The results of the study showed a high activity of copper and chromium migration in the soil of a 15-year-old active vineyard from trans-eluvial to trans-accumulative facies with intensification in the 15-30 cm horizon. Radial migration with accumulation of iron, manganese, cobalt and intensive accumulation of copper with a lateral differentiation coefficient of 3.21 in the 15-30 cm horizon in the middle part of the slope prevailed in the soil of the abandoned 100-year-old vineyard. The highest copper concentration found in the soil of the old vineyard was 115.4 mg/kg, which is 28% higher than the maximum permissible copper content established for medium loamy soils in the Republic of Serbia. Copper content levels in the soils of the young ampelocoenosis were close to the normative values (87.4-93.2 mg/kg), found in the lower part of the slope up to a depth of 30 cm, which were achieved after only 15 years of cultivation. The highest copper concentration in grapes (7.7 mg/kg) was found in a 100-year-old vineyard located in the lower part of the slope, where the upper soil horizons were copper-depleted in the absence of pesticide treatments. This indirectly indicates the perennial migration of copper to the underlying soil horizons under trans-accumulative elemental landscape conditions during the wet season of the year and its extraction by the deep root system of old vines.

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