Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXI, Issue 1
Written by Slaveya PETROVA, Bogdan NIKOLOV, IlianaVELCHEVA, Mariya YANKOVA, Emiliya KOGAN, Elena ZHELEVA, Ekaterina VALCHEVA, Alexandar ALEXANDROV, Mariana MARHOVA, Marinela TSANKOVA, Ivan ILIEV
Urban ecosystems are comprised of diverse land areas, resulting in different habitats for plants, animals and human within urban landscape. Urban habitat quality results the integration of different abiotic and biotic components, such as air, soil and water quality, microclimate and vegetation. Urban soils differ from the other components by the prolonged retention and accumulation of pollutants. As the traffic is rising as the most serious emitter of harmful substances in the environment, we aimed to assess its effect to some soil properties under a pollution gradient. Soil samples were collected on the 7.5 m, 25 m, and 50 m distance from two of the main boulevards in the city of Plovdiv (Bulgaria), using the transect method. Content of some heavy metals and toxic elements in soils was analyzed using ICP-MS. Data revealed that soil contamination is strongly influenced by the distance from the road, followed by the wind rose and urban gradient. Regarding the microbial soil communities, this study confirms that the anthropogenic pressures (building and road infrastructure, deforestation) are the most important factors affecting the soil quality in the urban areas.
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