Abstract
An extreme case of forest damage occurring near a point source of heavy metal emissions can be found on the Kola Peninsula, NW Russia. Emissions of heavy metals from the Monchegorsk smelter complex have gradually increased since the late 1940’s to the present annual emission level of up to 3 0001 of nickel and 2 000t of copper. In addition, large amounts of SO2 (up to 280 000 t annually) have also been emitted (Jevtjugina 1991). As a result, the forest ecosystems in the immediate vicinity of the Cu-Ni smelter have been almost completely destroyed. Few conifers have survived within a 5 km radius of the smelter, and the majority of understorey vegetation species have also disappeared.
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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Nöjd, P. (2000). Variation in radial growth of Scots pines exposed to heavy metal and sulphur emissions from the Cu-Ni smelter at Monchegorsk, NW Russia. In: Mälkönen, E. (eds) Forest Condition in a Changing Environment. Forestry Sciences, vol 65. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9373-1_34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9373-1_34
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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