**Heavy Metals — Soil Communities at Ecological Risk**

P. Šalamún, V. Hanzelová and T. Brázová

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http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/60404

#### **Abstract**

This article outlines an effect of the different kinds of environmental pollution on the soil nematode communities at two industrial regions (Krompachy and Jelšava) of eastern Slovakia. At the locality Krompachy, soil nematode communities were significantly affected by increased concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, and Zn. At the other location Jelšava, despite low concentrations of heavy metals, long-term emissions of magnesium dust had indirect impact on soil environment through altered soil conditions, mainly by alkaline pH. Pollution effects at the community structure (trophic and c-p groups) of soil nematodes were found to be the highest near the pollution sources, where communities with low population densities consisted mainly of disturbance-tolerant taxa from c-p 1 and c-p 2 groups. With an increasing distance from the pollution sources, the nematode communities were more structured and complex, with higher proportions of sensitive c-p 4 and 5 nematodes, composed mainly of predators and omnivores. Ecological indices (H´, MI2-5, SI) also clearly showed deteriorating environmental conditions towards the pollution sources. The greatest difference in the nematode community structure between the two localities was found in the proportion of c-p 1 and c-p 2 bacteriovorous nematodes. At the locality Krompachy characterised by critical heavy metal load, c-p 2 nematodes dominated, while c-p 1 nematode group prevailed at under extremely alkaline soil conditions in Jelšava. Results also showed that the free-living nematodes are useful tools for bioindication of industrial contamination and could be used as an additional source of information to the common approaches based on chemical methods.

**Keywords:** Soil nematodes, Industrial pollution, Heavy metals, Magnesium, Salini‐ ty bioindication

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