Changes in the Content of Lipid Peroxide Oxidation Products in Leaves of Poplar Species and Cultivars Under Conditions of Environmental Pollution with Heavy Metals

Changes in the content of lipid peroxidation products (LPO) in the assimilation organs of two species and three poplar cultivars under conditions of varying degrees of environmental pollution with heavy metals were studied. The established different amounts of accumulation of the latter in plant leaves indicate the specificity of their absorption. The greatest ability to accumulate heavy metals was revealed in plants growing in a zone of severe pollution, at the Northern Iron Ore Dressing Combine experimental site (henceforth referred to as Pivnichnyi HZK or PivnHZK). In the assimilation organs of the “Lvivska” and “Hradizhzka” cultivars, cadmium, one of the most dangerous elements for living organisms, accumulates on average 25.5 times more than in the leaves of plants growing on the territory of the “Arboretum of the Kryvyi Rih Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine” (control). The obtained data are in good agreement with the enrichment factor (EF^p_l) indicators of the specified element in the assimilation apparatus of poplars. A peculiarity of the stress effect of heavy metals on poplar is the absence of an increase in the formation of TBARS in the cultivars “Lvivska” and “Hradizhzka” with an increase in the level of accumulation of heavy metals in the conditions of PivnHZK in comparison with plants on CHZK. Considering that TBARS is a marker of the level of stress effect on organisms, and the established fact of high accumulation of heavy metals, the cultivars “Lvivska” and “Hradizhzka” can be used to create effective phytofilters with a high level of pollution by heavy metals at industrial sites.