The features of heavy metals and metalloids accumulation in the phytomass of the amphipodous moss Pleurozium schreberi (Brid.) Mitt. in the conditions of the Krasnosamarsky Forest area (Samara Region) and the National Park «Buzuluksky Bor» (Orenburg Region)

The paper analyzes ecological and geochemical features of the moss Pleurozium schreberi (Brid.) Mitt., growing in artificial pine plantings of the National Park «Buzuluksky Bor» (Orenburg Region) and the Krasnosamarsky Forest (Samara Region). The research has been carried out within the framework of the International Program ICP Vegetation (https://icpvegetation.ceh.ac.uk), on the practical use of some bryophyte species in the environmental monitoring of multi-element air pollution in the countries of Western and Eastern Europe and a number of other countries. In the National Park «Buzuluksky Bor» and the Krasnosamarsky Forest, where species diversity and ecological characteristics of bryophytes have been studied for several years, the phytomass of the moss Pleurozium schreberi has been selected. This species is included in the species list proposed by the organizers of the research work under the UNECE ICP Vegetation Program. A multi-element analysis of Pleurozium schreberi phytomass has been carried out on the basis of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna using instrumental epithermal neutron activation analysis (ENAA). The biogeochemical similarity of the moss Pleurozium schreberi from the Krasnosamarsky Forest and «Buzuluksky Bor», estimated by the concentration coefficients, has manifested itself in relation to a large group of heavy metals and metalloids, characterized by a relatively low ability to accumulate in its phytomass (Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, As, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Cd). Some differences have been revealed in relation to the elements with the maximum accumulation: Cu and Zn in the Krasnosamarsky Forest area, Mn and Ni – in the «Buzuluksky Bor». A relatively low content of most of the analyzed heavy metals and metalloids in the soil of the studied territories as well as in the phytomass of the biomonitor moss Pleurozium schreberi allows us to consider them to be background for the steppe zone of the European part of the Russian Federation.