Species Peculiarities of Weeds in Terms of Heavy Metal Accumulation

Control over the accumulation of heavy metals (HM) in agrophytocenoses is an urgent environmental problem. An obligatory component of all field agrophytocenoses are various agrobiological groups of weeds. The purpose of this work was to study the features of HM accumulation in the weed component of agrophytocenoses. The study was carried out in agrophytocenoses of the Yaroslavl region, represented by winter and spring crops, legumes, corn, industrial crops, and a wide variety of weeds. According to the data of the route survey of crops in the Yaroslavl region, the weediness of agricultural plants was 31–101 pieces per square meter. Weeds differed in the content of HMs: by 5.8 times for Zn; more than 14 times for Cd and Pb; and about 6 times for Cu. Dandelion medicinal and creeping wheatgrass expressed the barrier function of the roots in relation to all of the studied elements. The contribution of weeds to the general elimination of trace elements and heavy metals by plants of agrophytocenoses is insignificant. Keywords: weeds, heavy metals, trace elements, barrier function of root