Evaluation of Bioaccumulation of copper and zinc in soil and trees of Eucalyptus gomphocephala and Ficus nitida in Darna City, Libya

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate the bioaccumulation of heavy metals ( copper & zinc) in the soil and leaves of Eucalyptus gomphocephala and Ficus nitida in three different areas in Darna city and feasibility of exploit it on biomonitoring of polluted air with heavy metals in the urban areas. The selected three areas were City centre, cement factory and steam station. complete randomized design was used in the experiment with three factors. The results showed significant differences among the study areas in their content of copper and zinc where city centre area recorded the highest zinc (Zn) content, followed by steam station area while the area of cement factory recorded the lowest accumulated content of zinc. The results showed that steam station and cement factory recorded higher accumulated content of copper(Cu) than the city centre which recorded the lowest content. The trees showed significant differences between them in their content of zinc, Eucalyptus gomphocephalla recorded zinc content significantly higher than Ficus nitida while their copper content was in significant. The results also revealed high significant divergences between the samples (leaves and the soil) where zinc and copper content was significantly higher in the soil compared to the leaves, the highest copper content was in the soil of Eucalyptus tree at a rate of (1.395 mg/L) and in the soil of the steam station. Eucalyptus trees in the city centre recorded the maximum zinc content (12.75 mg/L). the effect of interaction between trees and samples types on content of zinc was insignificant whilst it was high significant on the content of copper. The highest zinc content was recorded in soil of Eucalyptus in the city centre at a rate of (14.157 mg/L), while the lowest zinc content was recorded in the soil of Ficus tree in the cement factory area at a rate of (10.493 mg/L).