Assessment of Heavy Metal Accumulation in Local Vegetation Due to Road Traffic

Abstract Environmental pollution caused by heavy metals is an increasingly pressing ecological issue. One of the main sources of these pollutants is road transport. This study aimed to assess the impact of traffic intensity on heavy metal emissions using locally occurring vegetation as a natural indicator of environmental contamination. The research focused on a common and widely distributed plant species – dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) – analyzing its capacity to accumulate pollutants. Plant samples were collected from four different locations with varying levels of traffic: near a highway, urban roads, and a forest area used as a reference site. The plants differed visually depending on the collection site, indicating the influence of pollution on their physical condition. Laboratory analyses revealed that plants from the area with the highest traffic intensity contained approximately four times higher concentrations of selected heavy metals – including Cd, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn – compared to samples from the forest site. These results demonstrated the ability of dandelions to accumulate heavy metals in their biomass show that local vegetation can serve as a simple, cost-effective, and non-invasive tool for environmental monitoring, supporting the planning of pollution mitigation efforts and soil phytoremediation strategies in urbanized and traffic-exposed areas.