ИСТИНА

Road transport is responsible for 57-75 % of total emissions in urban areas and tends to be the key source of environmental pollution in cities. Roadside soils and grounds perform as polycontaminated systems characterizing by the intense pollutant accumulation originating from motor vehicles: total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), heavy metals (HM), deicing salts (DS). The objective was to find correlations between traffic-related contaminants in the roadside soils and their ecotoxicity across a typical highway (125,000 vehicles per day) in the city of Moscow, Russia. The toxicity of roadside soils was obtained for all examined organisms within the whole 50 m zone, probably, due to combined effect of different pollutants. Live organisms exhibited different sensitivities to roadside soils pollution. The intensity of inhibition effects decreased in order: higher plants > earthworms and microorganisms > algae. The risk for aquatic ecosystems was assessed as low. Higher plants toxicity correlated with TPH, PAH, some HM, and DS; earthworm toxicity correlated with TPH, some PAH, HM, and DS; microorganism toxicity correlated with TPH and DS; algae had no observed correlations with contaminants. TPH and DS were general ecotoxicants affecting all organisms. Higher plants may be considered the PAH indicators and earthworms as HM indicators.