Summary:

Road transportation causes chemical pollution which may affect health of forest stands. The assimilative organs of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) are usu-ally considered as a sensitive indicator of the environment quality, since quality of pine needles is a factor strongly determining tree stand health as a whole. Accu-mulation and biosorption of toxic metal compounds e.g. chromium compounds concentration can often result in deformation of needle or shortening of needle length. Length and weight of needles were assigned as the benchmark factor of re-action to pollution cased by road transportation. Experimental plots were placed in sapling stands growing along state road no. 5 crossing the National Park of Wielkopolska (located in the western part of the Polish Lowland). The needles (one- and two-year specimen) were extracted from transects set in range of 20, 40 and 60 m distance from the road. Morphometric measurements were performed on scanned needles with application of digShape software. Two-factor variance analysis was employed (factor A age of needle and factor B distance from the road). The needles extracted from trees growing on transect located 60 m away from the road returned significantly higher mass and length values than the nee-dles extracted from the transects spreading 40 or 20 m away from the road. The significant difference between measurement results acquired form the transects lo-cated 20 and 40 m away from the road was not identified. Thus, the zone of strong pollution impact was recognized as a strip stretching up to 40 m away from the road.