DIVERSITY OF PLANTS AND FUNGI IN THE AREAS CONTAMINATED BY Sb MINING IN SLOVAKIA.

Weathering of open adits, dumps and non-isolated tailing impoundments at abandoned ore deposits cause many problems such as water, soil and stream sediments contamination by potentially toxic elements. Soil contamination often results in a local change in biodiversity. In the present study, we describe the diversity of plants and fungi in the areas contaminated mainly with arsenic and antimony. The highest contaminant contents (As, Sb, Pb, Zn, Cu) in soils were generally identified in alluvia of draining streams. In the soils, Sb and As are mainly bound in the structures of secondary Fe or Sb oxides and oxyhydroxides, which arise due to the oxidation of suldfidic minerals in soils in situ (precipitation from soil pore solutions). Phytosociologically, plant communities on anthropogenically significantly affected habitats - old mining dumps and ponds - differ significantly from those characteristic of the given type of vegetation zone on unpolluted substrates. Fungal diversity at the contaminated areas is realtively high and does not seem to differ from the surroundig habitats. However further research for the longer period is required to evaluate the whole mycobiota in its complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]