AGNIESZKA ABRATOWSKA, JULIA JEŻ, SYLWIA TRĄBKA (authors of photographs)
MAŁGORZATA WIERZBICKA (project manager)

University of Warsaw,
Faculty of Biology, Institute of Experimental Plant Biology, Department of Ecotoxicology;
Miecznikowa 1, 02-096 Warsaw
e-mail: agnieszkaslysz@biol.uw.edu.pl

Description popularizing the research project

Some like extreme experiences like that. They feel they are truly living the strongest when there is no running water, shelter and electricity. When they have to survive in a desert, forest or barren rocks with no trees to give wood for fire or shadow to hide from the scorching sun. They are looking forward to going on such a leave. They even pay a nice sum to attend a survival school, wander in the wilderness and have just roots, forest fruit and rain water for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When they get back home they wash away the dirt in their stylish bathrooms, they shave 2-week-long stubble and with neatly-cared nails they come back to normality. They come back to their server rooms, photocopiers and corporate cubicles where they immediately start dreaming of a new excursion.
What skills are required at a boot camp for people with adrenaline deficiency? What is necessary to be able to reproduce in highly hostile conditions and have fertile offspring? Among people of skyscrapers there are some who MUST struggle with wild nature in such conditions that the rest would just helplessly sit and weep. The same is true with plants. There are some amazing species which are able to grow on waste heaps saturated with lead and zinc. In the highly contaminated soil, where most seedlings would simply die, there are plants in full blossom. In other places they would not be so successful. In more fertile soil, in the comfortable damp shade of trees and bushes they would be driven out by stronger and more expansive species. Moreover the waste heap violets and sand rock cresses (Cardaminopsis arenosa) really need the metals. They do not like the green houses with automatic hydration. Only on the edges of slag dumps and on the heaps of waste the inconspicuous-looking plants desperately clinch to life. They seem vulnerable and weak yet the look is misleading as it does not show their real inner strength passed from generation to generation. So let's not reclaim the heaps. Let's leave it to those who like extremes like that.

Abstract

The flora found on sites with elevated concentration of heavy metals is unique. As the consequence of unfavourble conditions for growth of plants, only the best adapted individuals are favoured in the process of natural selection. Since this process takes place in not long time scale (age of the investigated zinc-lead waste heaps is about 130 years), it is defined as microevolution. Post-industrial areas are a scene for observation of the evolution of organisms in micro- scale, affected by strong pollution of the soil. The phenomenon of the occurrence of so-called metalfavoring species of plants in post-mining areas can be explained by the fact that nutritional requirements of those plants, in relation to concentrations of microelements (as zinc or copper), are elevated and, simultaneously, those plants show highly developed defense mechanisms in relation to toxic metals (as cadmium, lead or thallium). In the flora of metalliferrous areas, plants called metallophytes are found. They show high resistance to heavy metals as the effect of action of numerous protective mechanisms.
In Western Europe historical and natural values of postindustrial areas have been noticed. Remains of the old mines and some of the post-mining waste heaps are under protection in the rank of nature reserves, for example in Plombi¯res, Belgium. In Silesia, Poland, sites like those are numerous and are often endangered with destruction or ill-conceived reclamation.
It is worth taking a look at post-industrial areas from another perspective. The presented photos illustrate a general view on historical post-mining heaps which are remnants of exploration of zinc and lead ores in Poland and Belgium, and a detailed view noticeable only when one looks at those sites as if they were not heap of toxic waste.
Presented studies have been supported from Ministry of Science and Higher Education financial funds for scientific research and from University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology intramural funds. These studies are results of MSc Julia Jeż and MSc Sylwia Trąbka Master Theses and MSc Agnieszka Abratowska PhD Thesis, with major advisory of Prof. Małgorzata Wierzbicka.