ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-METALS AND SULFUR-RICH COMPOUNDS IN THE WATER MOSS FONTINALIS ANTIPYRETICA L EX HEDW

The water moss Fontinalis antipyretica has been investigated to estima te heavy metal pollution in the river Elbe (middle Germany). Procedure s of plant separation, digestion as well as an analytical method for I CP-MS analyses have been evaluated. Reproducibility and accuracy have been demonstrated on BCR 61 (NIST) reference material and results have been compared with AAS and AES data. The distribution of heavy metals in different plant segments of indigenous material has been analyzed. Exposition of plant material in the river Elbe have shown no correlat ion between the heavy metal content in plants and that of water sample s. Cd and Zn concentrations found in the plant material are significan tly enriched relatively to control samples. To understand the sophisti cated 'real system' experiments have been carried out under laboratory conditions to investigate induced sulphur-rich compounds in the prese nce of heavy metals using HPLC including on-line derivatization.