Heavy metal accumulation in two peat bogs from southern Poland

The dy namic changes in se lected heavy metal con cen tra tions were an a lyzed in two ombrotrophic peat bogs from south ern Po land: Puoecizna Ma³a (PK) and Puoecizna Krauszowska (PM). The high est con tents of Pb and Zn oc cur at the top of pro files ex am ined: 115.36 mg/kg (PM1), 90.61 mg/kg (PM2), 182.40 mg/kg (PK1), 121.68 mg/kg (PK2) and 127.43 mg/kg (PM1), 89.73 mg/kg (PM2), 170 mg/kg (PK1), 130.4 mg/kg (PK2), re spec tively. Con cen tra tions of cop - per are sim i lar to those of lo cal soils vary ing from 9.4 to 12.8 mg/kg. Cad mium strongly var ies with depth, which in di - cates dis tinct mo bil ity of this el e ment. Two peaks of el e vated Fe con cen tra tions are ob served at the top and bot tom of the Puoecizna Ma³a pro file, while the max i mum in Puoecizna Krauszowska was at the top of the peat bog. The Ti con tent dis tinctly var ies with depth and cor re lates with the ash con tent (R2 = 0.91–0.99). The stron gest and pos i tive cor re la tion is ob served be tween Zn-Pb and Ti-Pb con tents. The sig nif i cant dif fer ences of metal con cen tra tions are noted be tween the pro files, which is prob a bly con nected with a rate of peat ac cu mu la tion and plant com po si tion of the pro files in ves - ti gated, as well as with their dis tur bance by hu man ac tiv ity.