Element Composition of Mushrooms in Contrasting Anthropogenic Loading

Abstract

Environmental macro- and microelements in both unpolluted and polluted areas are cycled by the active participation of higher fungi. ICP-MS and fluorimetric Se analysis were used to determine, under conditions of contrasting anthropogenic loading (in the vicinity of a mineral fertilizer plant), the contents of 21 macro- and microelements in 7 species of mycorrhizal mushrooms: Russula vesca, Lactaiuspubescens, Leccinum scrabum, Leccinum aurantiacum, Helvella crispa, Suillus luteus andSuillus granulates; and in two species of saprophytes: Pubescens involutus and Morchella esculenta. Among the studied ecosystems, the new successional ecosystem of an abundant phosphogypsum storage site was characterized by the highest levels of Sr accumulation by mushrooms, whereas the artificial ecosystem of the plant’s territory was responsible for mushrooms accumulating high amounts of Al, Fe, Pb, V and Сd. The cumulative ecosystem area near the abundant phosphogypsum storage site demonstrated higher levels of Pb and lower levels of Al, Cr, Ni, V and Co in mushrooms than in the copse at the base of the functioning phosphogypsum storage sites. In conditions of contrasting anthropogenic loading, mycorrhizal fungi of the family Russulacea and saprophytes (P. involutus) demonstrated strong correlations between Al, V and Li; V and Sr; Se and Р; and Li and Fе. In these conditions saprophytes (P. involutus) were characterized by significantly higher accumulations of practically all the studied elements (especially heavy metals) and lower Se concentrations. In conditions of powerful anthropogenic loading, interspecies differences in the element compositions of mycorrhizal mushrooms showed the preferential accumulation of V, Pb, Zn, Fe, Li, and Mn by Helvella crispa; As and Si, by Leccinum scrabum; Cd, Se, and Mn, by Leccinum aurantiacum; Sr, Cr, and B, by R. vesca; Al, Co, and Ni, by L. pubescens; Si and B, by Suillus granulates. The ecological risks of consuming mushrooms collected in the vicinity of the mineral fertilizer plant differed by more than 100 times depending on mushroom species (the most significant were recorded for P. involutus) and place of growth; they decreased from the artificial (territory of the fertilizer plant) to cumulative (vicinity of phosphogypsum storage sites) and succession (territory of the abundant phosphogypsum storage site) ecosystems. Zn had the highest phosphogypsum/mushroom transfer coefficient; Sr, the lowest.