Change of the morphological structure of leaves of Vaccinium vitisidaea caused by heavy metal pollution

The objective of the present investigation is to study the specific effect of the “Severonickel” smelting complex emissions on processes in the soil-plant system. The experiment was carried out in the central part of the Kola Peninsula in a spruce-pine forest in the northern taiga zone and included 5 field sites treated with contaminants of differing compositions (water soluble and hard soluble copper and nickel contaminants). In the beginning of the experiment high amounts of copper and nickel in plant tissue were found in the sites treated with hard soluble contaminants which is caused by precipitation of insoluble particles on the surface of the leaves. In two years the plants began to take up the available forms of nickel and copper from the soil. Easily water soluble contaminants damaged the epidermis of plant leaves to a greater extent than the hard soluble ones, epidermal cells were collapsed, cuticular structures and stomatal complexes destroyed.