Trace elements in some biomass collected from areas associated with the lignite mining and power producing enterprise Maritsa East, Bulgaria

The contents and concentration trends of 53 elements in four vegetation species and their parts have been investigated. The studied samples include culture plants (wheat and sunflower) taken from the areas of Maritsa East-2 and Maritsa East-3 TEPSs as well as wild plants (Hypericum perforatum and Typha) collected from the Troyanovo-3 mine of Maritsa East lignite basin. According to the number of elements that exceed the lower limit of average values of terrestrial vegetation, the analyzed vegetation species could be arranged as follows: Hypericum perforatum > sunflower > Typha ≥ wheat. It has been found that in wheat and sunflower the elements with coefficient of concentration (CC) ≥3 exceeding the average values of terrestrial vegetation are Au and Cr, and Au and Sr, respectively. Most of the trace elements concentrate in wheat and sunflower stem+leaves while in Hypericum perforatum trace elements accumulate in blossoms. It has also been identified that the accumulated trace elements in Typha are equally distributed in all parts of the plant.