Vegetation changes as indicators of landfill leachate seepage locations: Case study

Landfills remain widely used for waste disposal, despite their negative impact on human health and environment. Adverse impact is mainly due to gas and leachate emissions. Leachates are liquids that are characterized by high variability in composition, high ammonia and chloride content, and presence of toxic and non-biodegradable compounds. In recent years there has been growing interest in issues related with the reactions of living organisms to pollution - biomonitoring. However, bioindicative methods are not fully used in landfill studies and are still rarely applied. The aim of this work is finding the relationship between the composition and leachate seepage points and determining the possibilities of their practical utilization for the assessment of the applied mineral sealing of landfill surfaces. Additionally, detailed analysis of leachate composition was made. The hypothesis is that some species indicating natural salinity will also indicate landfill sites with the occurrence of leachate seepage, which increase salinity. Physico-chemical analysis of the leachate were carried out. Moreover, vegetation assessment was conducted by phytocoenological releve ' s. The landfill has different habitats in places where leachate seepage is observed. The results indicate that the presence of leachates alters the plant species composition. The composition shows increasing representation of species tolerant to salinization and a decreasing share of glycophytes in leachate seepage points. Based on the relation of glycophytes to plant species tolerant to salinization, a work procedure and index of leachate vegetation were created, which provide a fast identification of leachate seepage points. The presented results confirm the diagnostic potential of plants for the assessment and location of leachate seepage points. The results may be applied in the reclamation works on landfills.

Automated summary

Despite the widespread use of landfills for waste disposal, their negative impact on human health and the environment, mainly due to gas and leachate emissions, remains a concern. The study explores the relationship between leachate composition and seepage points, aiming to assess the mineral sealing of landfill surfaces and the potential utilization of bioindicative methods for monitoring pollution.