Trading platform 
Monitoring 
Express applications 
Fork Work 
Service 
News 
Directory 
Scientists from the South Ural State University conducted a study and developed a method for calculating the bioconcentration factor of hazardous heavy metals in grains.
As part of their scientific research, ecologists from the Institute of Natural and Exact Sciences at SUSU, including Tatyana Krupnova, Olga Rakova, and Marina Popkova, together with colleagues from the South Ural Federal Scientific Center of Mineralogy and Geoecology of the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Miass and the Center for Chemization and Agricultural Radiology "Chelyabinsk", sought answers to the question of which parts of the wheat ear can concentrate hazardous substances and to what extent.
Researchers studied not only the grains and stems of wheat, but also the soil on which it was grown. Experiments were conducted in agricultural areas of the Chelyabinsk region on winter wheat crops.
During the analysis of soil samples, it was found that the highest content of heavy metals is present in copper, followed by zinc, then iron and manganese. Similar results were obtained when studying the plants themselves.
A comparative study of two different varieties of winter wheat at different stages of their growth was conducted: at the tillering stage, heading stage, and after grain ripening.
As a result of the study, it became clear that the roots of wheat accumulate copper most intensively during the heading stage, while the shoots do so during grain ripening. As for zinc, a different dynamic is observed: its concentration decreases slightly from tillering to heading stages, and then increases again in the subsequent stage.
Regarding iron and manganese in wheat grains, their levels remain low. The bioaccumulation coefficient of iron decreases at all growth stages, while manganese first decreases by the heading stage, and then, like zinc, increases by the ripening stage.
Scientists developed a method to assess pollutants in grains to determine the bioconcentration factor, which shows how heavy metals transfer from soil to plant organs.
Tatyana Krupnova, senior research fellow at the Laboratory of Environmental Problems of Post-Industrial Agglomeration, explained that contamination of agricultural lands with metals does not always lead to an increase in the content of hazardous substances in grain crops.
"In our case, the metal bioaccumulation coefficients in grains turned out to be low, despite the presence of zinc and copper in soils in quantities not exceeding the maximum allowable concentrations. We will continue our research to assess the real environmental risks of soil contamination," she said.
