Bioavailability of individual chemical forms of metals occurring in soil is a basic source of its accumulation in plants. Soils from a root layer collected from the stands of stinging nettle Urtica dioica L., reflect different habitat conditions in the area of Wisła, a town in southern Poland. The Bukowa, Czarne, Głębce, Jawornik, Kubalonka, Malinka, Kobyla, and Salmopol also were research subjects. The content of the following metals in soils, as well as in fallout dust, was measured using the AAS method: Cd, Ni, Cr, Pb, Cu, Zn, Mn, and Fe. Accuracy was controlled by using CRM 277 and IAEA-SOIL-7 as reference materials. Speciation analysis in accordance with Rudd’s method allowed for evaluation of bioavailability of those metals in plants. The most bioavailable elements in an exchangeable form on all examined stands were Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cr resulting from a complex influence of transboundary emission, traffic emission, and low emission from coal combustion.
Also organic bounds might be potentially bioavailable during acid rainfalls as well as carbonates of particular elements, and the biggest proportion was noticed for Zn, Pb, and Fe. It may result in a higher accumulation of those elements in medicinal plants that are collected in a natural state. The range of metal pseudo- total contents in soil in the area of Wisła was limited to the following values (mg·kg^-1): Cd – 5.3-12.9, Cr – 4.7-14.2, Cu – 9.4-27.1, Ni – 8.2-18.5, Pb – 41.3-99.7, Zn – 106.7-480.6, Mn – 106.2-481.9, and Fe – 7,000.0-16,300.0.