Potentially toxic elements in sediments near mines-a comprehensive approach for the assessment of pollution status and associated risk for the surface water environment.

This research is focused on the assessment of the pollution status of river and lake sediments near Pb, Zn, and Cu mines and tailings in the southeastern part of Serbia-Krajište area. The study is based on hypothesis that investigated rivers and lakes in the Krajište area could be polluted by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) and that these elements could pose considerable ecological risk to the studied surface water environment. High PTE contents are detected in studied river sediments (up to 7892 mg kg for Zn, 3224 mg kg for Cu, 36,790 mg kg for Pb, 64.

The significance of applying different factors for the evaluation of sediment contamination by toxic elements and estimation of the ecological risk.

The optimized three-step sequential extraction procedure for the fractionation of micro- and macroelements, was conducted to determine fractional characteristics of PTEs (potentially toxic elements) in surface sediments of rivers in the Vlasina watershed. The sequential extraction results, which enable the evaluation of mobility of the studied elements, have indicated that Zn, Ni, Cu, Cr, and As can be considered slightly mobile, whereas Pb, Mn, Cd, and Co were regarded as possibly mobile elements. Lead was dominantly bounded (specifically adsorbed or co-precipitated) to iron and manganese oxides (up to 80%) and may be released by reduction.

Mass distributions and morphological and chemical characterization of urban aerosols in the continental Balkan area (Belgrade).

This work presents characteristics of atmospheric aerosols of urban central Balkans area, using a size-segregated aerosol sampling method, calculation of mass distributions, SEM/EDX characterization, and ICP/MS analysis. Three types of mass distributions were observed: distribution with a pronounced domination of coarse mode, bimodal distribution, and distribution with minimum at 1 μm describing the urban aerosol. SEM/EDX analyses have shown morphological difference and variation in the content of elements in samples.

Trace elements in size-segregated urban aerosol in relation to the anthropogenic emission sources and the resuspension.

Size segregated particulate samples of atmospheric aerosols in urban site of continental part of Balkans were collected during 6 months in 2008. Six stages impactor in the size ranges: Dp ≤ 0.49 μm, 0.

Contribution of marine and continental aerosols to the content of major ions in the precipitation of the central Mediterranean.

The region of the investigated receptor is situated in the southern part of the Adriatic Sea in the Mediterranean. The measuring station is located on the seashore, which, being considered as a border area, is representative for the qualitative and quantitative estimation of the influence of marine and continental aerosols on the content of major ions in precipitation. In the sampling period, precipitation in the region of the investigated receptor was more abundant during the summer and autumn than during the winter and spring.