VII. AlpsAdria Scientific Workshop Stara Lesna, Slovakia, 2008 427                            !" #$$%& ’  ()   1 Department of Landscape Protection and Environmental Geography, Institute of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Debrecen, H4010 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1., email: szszabo@delfin.unideb.hu 2 KVIPlusz Ltd., H1108 Budapest, Gyömrıi út 132136. 3 Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Debrecen, H4010 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1. 4 Department of Applied Ecology, Institute of Biology Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Debrecen, H4010 Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1.  The results of a smallpot experiment of cadmiumloading (5 mg . kg 1 ) with the addition of zinc (5 mg . kg 1 ) carried out are introduced in this paper. For this, soil samples were taken from 4 sites of ploughland, grassland and forest landuse types. Accumulation characteristics of the two metals as well as their interaction with the soil properties were analysed. The results show that landuse has significant effect on zinc uptake. There is close correlation between the zinc and cadmium uptake of plants as well as that cadmium concentration of soils plays an important role in it. Zinc shows positive correlation while cadmium shows negative correlation with organic matter. Beside organic colloids, inorganic colloids i.e. clay fraction also showed close correlation. ! zinc, cadmium, accumulation, ryegrass, landuse "!#$" Due to the production activities of mankind, a number of pollutants impacting living organisations to a various degree, are emitted to the environment. The type of their impact is highly dependent on the toxic characters of the very materials as well as on what level they can enter organisms (Bíró and Takács, 2007; Rabnecz et al. 2007; Rékási and Filep, 2006). A significant proportion of pollutions can come from inorganic contaminants including heavy metals. Metals can enter the foodchain and accumulate in living organisms to such a degree that may have a harmful influence on their physiological processes (Rékási et al. 2006). As a result of biomagnification, concentration increases as reaching the top of the foodpyramid. Metal uptake by plants are studied in field and smallpot experiments, during which it the amount of metal accumulated by a given plant in given circumstances and its potential toxic effect can be determined (Kádár, 1991). Each plant is susceptible to such effects to a various degree and accumulate metals in a various level even according to genotypes. Cadmium is, even in small quantity, a toxic element that accumulates in plants without visible signs. It tends not to be washedout from the soil, thus as a consequence of the use of phosphate fertilisers, sewage sludge disposal and industrial emission, its concentration can increase and can also enter the foodchain (Kádár and Kastori, 2006; Wu et al. 2002). In the environment cadmium and zinc usually occur together and they compete for the same binding places on the colloid surface. An experiment of cadmiumzinc loading aiming to compare the role of the endowments of 4 habitats and 3 landuse categories in plant accumulation was carried out. The aim was to study the influence of different soil types and land use on heavy metal uptake of a test plant.