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Two groups of invertebrates, terrestrial mollusks (Gastropoda) and Chrysomela populi leaf beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), were sampled to estimate the suitability of these organisms as bioindicators of risk element pollution (predominantly Cd, Pb, and Zn) alongside the risk element concentration gradient in the contaminated area (former mining/smelting areas in the vicinity of Příbram city, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic). The individuals representing ten species of terrestrial snails and imagoes of C. populi were collected manually at five sampling sites, differing in the level of soil contamination with risk elements. The findings showed high variability of the results regardless of the element determined, animal species, and sampling location. Among the elements, higher accumulation ability was observed for Cd and Zn, given the higher bioaccessibility of these elements in soils compared to Pb, Cr, and Cu. Higher Cd and Zn accumulation in the soft tissues of gastropods (without any statistically significant differences among the species) compared to C. populi was also recorded. Medians of the bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) reached up to 33.2 for Cd and 5.8 for Zn, in gastropods while reaching up to 3.4 for Cd, and 2.3 for Zn, for C. populi. For both groups of organisms, paradoxically, a higher rate of accumulation of risk elements was observed in all analyzed organisms in sites with lower soil contamination compared to heavily contaminated sites. This indicated the ability of the organisms living in extreme conditions to avoid the uptake of these elements or to move among areas of different contamination levels. Thus, terrestrial gastropods and C. populi proved to be unsuitable bioindicators for assessing soil pollution., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The North Bohemian Brown Coal Basin (Czech Republic) is suggested as a source of significant pollution in the surrounding environment with various pollutants, including risk elements. A total of 53 sampling points were selected within the North Bohemian region. The selected sampling points represented either the basin areas (affected by the coal mining and related activities) or the mountain areas (an area unaffected by the coal mining but characterized by the geogenic sources of the risk elements). At each of the sampling points, soils and respective dominant indigenous plant samples were collected. A suite of ecological indices, namely, individual pollution index (Ii), Nemerow index (PN), bioaccumulation factor (BAF), translocation factor (TF), and hazard quotient (HQ), were applied to estimate the environmental risk of As, Be, Cd, and Zn levels in soils, potential soil-plant transfer, and soil-plant-animal transport of these stated elements. The results from Ii showed that the maximum values of As, Be, Cd, and Zn in the investigated soils exceeded the preventive values, where the Ii value was up to 58 for As in the mountain areas, indicating severe pollution. At the same time, mild pollution was recorded in the case of Cd. For Be in the researched soils, its Ii assessment result was a wide range, varying between a clean environment and severe pollution. Whereas As and Be uptake by plants was limited and these elements were retained in the plant's roots, relatively high mobility and soil to plant shoots transport ability of Cd were recorded and documented by the TF values. The HQs calculated for selected herbivorous mammals in the area showed that the potential health risk of As and Be was limited to only plant roots in the hotspots with extreme As and Be contents. In comparison, substantial health risk of Cd was observed in the aboveground biomass of plants. Therefore, the potential remediation of the coal mining areas should be focused on (i) identification of the As and Be hotspots and (ii) to reduce the mobility and plant availability of Cd in the whole investigated area., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Central Bohemia (Czech Republic) has highly developed industry and a dense rail network. Here, we aimed to determine the content of risk elements in dandelion plants (Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia) growing near train stations, industrial enterprises, and in the city parks of 16 cities in the Central Bohemian region. The highest element contents in the soils were found in industrial areas affected by the historical mining and smelting activities; contemporary industry showed no substantial effect on the soil element contents. The median values of element contents (As, Be, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) at the railway station sites were the highest among the monitored sites, where the differences between park and station sites were significant for Be, Co, and Zn. Although the intensity of the traffic at the individual stations differed, we found that long-term regular traffic enhanced the element contents in the soils and, subsequently, in the plants. For Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Pb, V, and Zn, the highest median element contents were found in plant roots, regardless of the sampling site. For Cd and Zn, the contents in leaves were higher than in the inflorescences, and the opposite pattern was recorded for Co and Cu. As and Be were distributed equally among the plant parts. Among the sampling sites, the As, Be, Cd, Zn, and Pb contents in the plant roots tended to have higher median values at the station sites, confirming the results of our soil analyses. We detected a fairly good correlation between soil and plant content for cadmium, regardless of the sampling site, soil element content, or analyzed part of the plant. Thus, we propose that dandelion is a suitable bioindicator of cadmium pollution of soil.