ORIGINAL ARTICLE Suitability of linden and elder in the assessment of environmental pollution of Brestovac spa and Bor lake (Serbia) Tanja S. Kalinovic 1 • Snezana M. Serbula 1 • Jelena V. Kalinovic 1 • Ana A. Radojevic 1 • Jelena V. Petrovic 2 • Mirjana M. Steharnik 2 • Jelena S. Milosavljevic 1 Received: 26 January 2016 / Accepted: 9 February 2017 / Published online: 21 February 2017 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 Abstract The suitability of linden and elder as biomoni- tors was evaluated in the tourist zone of the Bor region well known for pyrometallurgical copper production. The con- centrations of As, Cu, Pb and Zn in the soil, washed and unwashed leaves and roots of linden and elder were determined. The absorption of As, Cu, Pb and Zn from soil to roots and leaves, as well as the translocation of the studied elements from roots to leaves, was analysed. It was observed that the soil in the tourist zone of Bor (Bor lake and Brestovac spa) was greatly polluted with Cu and As. Linden and elder leaves can be used as a low-cost material for detection of As, Cu, Pb and Zn in the atmospheric deposition, which was concluded due to the amounts of these elements removed after a washing treatment. Thus, canopies of linden and elder might have an important role in the removal of the polluting substances from the air. The elder leaves were more suitable to be used for indication of environmental pollution with As, Cu and Pb than the linden leaves. The area of the Bor lake sampling site had higher air pollution with As and Pb than Brestovac spa, since greater amounts of As and Pb were washed off the linden and elder leaves from the Bor lake sampling site. The linden and elder used different adaptation strategies in conditions of the increased soil and air pollution. These strategies were based on different efficiencies of element absorption from the soil and on limited or efficient translocation of the studied elements from roots to leaves, and therefore, they have an important role in the biogeo- chemical cycling of the examined elements in the environment. Keywords Arsenic Á Atmospheric deposition Á Copper Á Sambucus Nigra Á Tilia spp Introduction Contaminants in the form of atmospheric dust and aerosols can be transported over relatively long distances and deposited into water, soil and biota. Toxic elements origi- nating from mining and smelting operations are usually most concentrated in the finer particle fraction (\2 lm). They have the ability of a long-range transport (Csavina et al. 2012). Considering that Cu smelters can contribute to one-third of the total As emissions in the atmosphere, this human carcinogen poses the biggest threat to the Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12665-017-6485-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Snezana M. Serbula ssherbula@tfbor.bg.ac.rs Tanja S. Kalinovic tkalinovic@tfbor.bg.ac.rs Jelena V. Kalinovic jkalinovic@tfbor.bg.ac.rs Ana A. Radojevic aradojevic@tfbor.bg.ac.rs Jelena V. Petrovic jelena.petrovic@irmbor.co.rs Mirjana M. Steharnik mira0309@gmail.com Jelena S. Milosavljevic jmilosavljevic@tfbor.bg.ac.rs 1 Technical Faculty in Bor, University of Belgrade, Vojske Jugoslavije 12, 19210 Bor, Serbia 2 The Mining and Metallurgy Institute Bor, Zeleni bulevar 35, 19210 Bor, Serbia 123 Environ Earth Sci (2017) 76:178 DOI 10.1007/s12665-017-6485-0