Das Projekt "Schwermetallkontamination von Boeden in der Ukraine" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Bern, Geologisches Institut durchgeführt. Leading Questions: 1. What are the natural background concentrations of heavy metals in the representative Ukrainian agricultural and forest soils, and how do these compare with the concentrations due to anthropogenic activities? 2. What are the implications of soil contamination for agriculture and human health. Abstract: Ukraine is easily one of the most polluted countries on Earth. With extensive coal-burning, mining, chemicals manufacturing, and heavy industry, metal contamination probably extends to every corner of the country and affects every citizen. Unfortunately, there is very little quantitative information available to indicate the true extent of these problems. This project represents an effort to 1) quantify the present rates of atmospheric metal deposition in different regions of the country, 2)reconstruct the changing rates of metal fluxes over time (past few hundred to several thousand years), and 3) compare these findings with rates of atmospheric metal deposition in central Europe (Switzerland) and remote northern Europe (northern Scotland and the Shetland Islands). The ultimate goal of the study is to clearly distinguish between natural versus anthropogenic sources of potentially toxic heavy metals to representative Ukrainian forest and agricultural soils.