The Impact of the Type of Soil Contaminated with Heavy Metals on the Risk of their Translocation to the Consumption Parts of Maize

Abstract The purpose of the research was to examine the extent to which the type of soil co-contaminated with Cd, Pb and Zn affected the accumulation and distribution of these metals in maize; a crop that plays a significant role in feeding of animals and humans. Two 1-year microplot experiments were conducted using four types of soils. The soils were as follows: sandy soil with a low content of organic matter (S1), sandy soil of analogical granu-lometric composition, but with a higher content of organic mat-ter (S2), loess poor in organic matter (L1) and the same loess with its higher content (L2). The differences between the soils in terms of the availability of individual metals for maize and their transport from the roots to the aerial parts were evaluated on the basis of bioaccumulation factors (BF) and translocation indexes (TL). It was found that maize cultivation on the soil poorly pol-luted with Cd, Pb and Zn, regardless of its type, poses the dan-ger of translocation of these metals to the grains in the amounts exceeding the maximum limit in foods. However, the amount of metals accumulated in the grain, as well as in the cobs, do not exclude the use of these plant parts for feed.