Metal uptake in plants along a pollution gradient from a metal smelter

Abstract
Until 1987 the largest single source of S0 ₂ emission in Norway was the Sulitjelma copper smelter, situated in a narrow valley in the northern part of the country. A previous study, based on sampling in 1982, showed substantial influence of smelter emissions on metal concentrations in natural vegetation along a western gradient from the smelter. Reasons for this may party have been impacts of soil acidification, partly direct effects of heavy metal deposition. Repeated sampling of the same plant species at the same sites was carried out in 1988, 1992, and 2000 in order to study the development in plant metal uptake following the closing of the smelter in 1987. The plant samples from the recent samplings show only moderate influence from the previous smelter emissions, indicating that the soil has at lest party recovered from the chemical influence caused by the smelter.