The need to achieve the sustainability goals and to reduce the continuous exploitation of the limited urban areas increases requests for the regeneration of brownfields. The current study aims to review the state of brownfields in the Northern Czech Region and neighboring German (Saxony) and Polish (Silesian) Regions which share a common geological background and environmental problems. The peculiarities of the brownfield’s properties related to the term, classification, legislative framework, access to available data, degree of contamination, and remediation methods were the focus of this review. It was established that the state with brownfield identification and transformation is better in the Czech Republic, followed by Germany, with lower awareness in Poland. The relevant examples of successful brownfield revitalization and the importance of educational components were introduced. A prospective application of the phytotechnology with the second-generation crops for the remediation of brownfields was discussed. The utilization of Miscanthus spp. for marginal lands with low contamination can provide an economic return by having biomass converted into energy or bioproducts and the utilization of the accompanied waste as carbon-rich biochar which can indeed support phytoremediation, enhance plants’ growth and serve as a medium for carbon sequestration. The next steps in the research have to concentrate on comparison of the rehabilitation methods introduced for the targeted regions with the global approach in brownfield redevelopment along with the practical ensuring the phytotechnology potential at the selected brownfields.

Manganese concentrations in silver birch leaves were studied in the Ore Mountains and several reference localities in Czechia, both mountainous (up to 950 m MSL) and lowland (ca. 300 m MSL). The studied mountainous areas have been seriously damaged by acid rains in the last decades and forests there have still not recovered from that crisis. The aim of this study was to identify the major controls on the foliar Mn concentration variability, which was more than one order of magnitude, from 200 mg kg-1 (10th percentile) to 2000 mg kg-1 (90th percentile) in the mountainous sites, that is, under uniform environmental conditions and for the same emission history of mountainous forests. The foliar Mn concentrations in the highest 5% samples were >3000 mg kg-1 which can be close to toxicity for persistent tree growth and thus indicate actual local geochemical stress in plants. Manganese uptake by plants has been enhanced by acid rain in the last decades, inferred from low foliar Mg (ca. 0.15%) and soil acidity (soil pH down to 4.0 in aqueous extracts). Certain bedrocks in the Ore Mountains, particularly local granitic porphyry and mafic lavas, have elevated Mn concentrations; however, in the mafic lavas, the soil Mn excess is compensated by elevated concentrations of soil Mg and pH. The highest foliar Mn concentrations were found in specimens growing in soils on granitic porphyry and on certain granites. The Mn concentration in birch leaves could be proposed as a proxy for the impact of soil acidification in central European mountain forests.