Model evaluation of the phytoextraction potential of heavy metal hyperaccumulators and non-hyperaccumulators

Evaluation of the remediation ability of zinc/cadmium in hyper- and non-hyperaccumulator plant species through greenhouse studies is limited. To bridge the gap between greenhouse studies and field applications for phytoextraction, we used published data to examine the partitioning of heavy metals between plants and soil (defined as the bioconcentration factor). We compared the remediation ability of the Zn/Cd hyperaccumulators Thlaspi caerulescens and Arabidopsis halleri and the non-hyperaccumulators Nicotiana tabacum and Brassica juncea using a hierarchical linear model (HLM). A recursive algorithm was then used to evaluate how many harvest cycles were required to clean a contaminated site to meet Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Despite the high bioconcentration factor of both hyperaccumulators, metal removal was still limited because of the plants' small biomass. Simulation with N. tabacum and the Cadmium model suggests further study and development of plants with high biomass and improved phytoextraction potential for use in environmental cleanup.     

Mercury in European Blushers,Amanita rubescens,mushrooms and topsoils: Bioconcentration potential and intake assessment

Total mercury content has been determined in fruiting bodies of European Blushers and topsoils collected from 11 sites across Poland in 2006-2008. Mercury analysis was carried out using a validated analytical method and cold-vapour atomic absorption (CV-AAS). The European Blusher effectively accumulated mercury in fruiting bodies. The mean values of total mercury in caps of European Blushers from background (uncontaminated) areas were from 0.22 to 1.0 (0.067-3.2) and in stipes from 0.16 to 0.65 (0.071-2.7) μg/g dry weight. In topsoil beneath to fruiting bodies, the median Hg concentration at 10 sites in Northern Poland varied between 0.030 and 0.072 (0.0096–0.19) μg/g dw, and in one site in Southern Poland was 0.20 (0.079–0.34) μg/g dw. Data on Hg in European Blushers from different countries were reviewed. The mean concentrations of total Hg in caps of European Blushers from two “pristine” sites in northern part of Poland were ～1.0 μg/g dw. A meal made with 300–500 g of fresh caps of European Blushers collected at such sites (assuming 90% water content in caps) can result in Hg intake of 0.0003–0.0005 mg Hg/kg bm (assuming a 60 kg bm), which is a dose equipotent to a new provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) value set for inorganic Hg.     

Evaluation of food chain transfer of the antibiotic oxytetracycline and human risk assessment

There has been recent concern regarding the possibility of antibiotics entering the aquatic food chain and impacting human consumers. This work reports experimental results of the bioconcentration of the antibiotic oxytetracycline (OTC) by the Asian watermeal plant (Wolffia globosa Hartog & Plas) and bioaccumulation of OTC in watermeal and water by the seven-striped carp (Probarbus jullieni). They show, for the first time, the extent to which OTC is able to transfer from water to plant to fish and enter the food chain. The mean bioconcentration factor (dry weight basis) with watermeal was 1.28 × 10³ L kg⁻¹. Separate experiments were undertaken to characterize accumulation of OTC by carp from water and watermeal. These showed the latter pathway to be dominant under the conditions employed. The bioconcentration and biomagnification factors for these processes were 1.75 L kg⁻¹ and 2 × 10⁻⁴ kg g⁻¹ respectively. Using an aqueous concentration range of 0.34–3.0 μg L⁻¹, hazard quotients for human consumption of contaminated fish of 1.3 × 10⁻² to 1.15 × 10⁻¹ were derived.     

5种沉水植物对重金属富集能力的对比研究

为了探求不同的沉水植物对水体中重金属吸收富集能力的差异,采用原子吸收光谱法,对淮河支流东风渠水体及水体中常见的5种沉水植物:菹草、黑藻、龙须眼子菜、穗花狐尾藻及小茨藻进行了铅(Pb)、镉(Cd)、锌(Zn)、铜(Cu)含量分析。结果表明:5种沉水植物样品中重金属含量远远高于水体重金属背景值,对重金属Cu、Pb、Cd、Zn的富集系数为58~1 515,对Zn富集最强,最大富集量达到242.42 mg/kg,富集系数为1 515。不同的沉水植物对重金属的吸收富集优势存在明显差异,利用沉水植物来修复水体重金属污染时,须依据不同的污染元素来选择合适的沉水植物。     

The estimation of bioconcentration factors of aromatic hydrocarbons by high‐performance liquid chromatography

The determination of Bioconcentration Factors (BCF) via HPLC capacity factors (k') has been studied, including the effect of column type and mobile phase composition on the correlation between log BCF and log k’. Values of BCF correlate well with the phenylsilica column capacity factors. The phenylsilica column followed by C18 column give better correlations than either C8 or C2 column. The use of HPLC with phenylsilica as stationary phase and methanol‐water as mobile phase in the prediction of BCF can be at least as good or better than the use of n‐octanol/water partitioning system. There are no significant differences in the correlations between log k’ and log BCF with the changes of methanol concentration in the mobile phase, and it seems that a high proportion of methanol in the eluent is required to obtain good results.     

In-vivo passive sampling to measure elimination kinetics in bioaccumulation tests

The application of in-tissue passive sampling to quantify chemical kinetics in fish bioconcentration experiments was investigated. A passive sampler consisting of an acupuncture needle covered with a PDMS tube was developed together with a method for its deployment in rainbow trout. The time to steady state for chemical uptake into the passive sampler was >1 d, so it was employed as a kinetically limited sampler with a deployment time of 2 h. The passive sampler was employed in parallel with the established whole tissue extraction method to study the elimination kinetics of 10 diverse chemicals in rainbow trout. 4-n-nonylphenol and 2,4,6-tri-tert-butylphenol were close to or below the limit of quantification in the sampler. For chlorpyrifos, musk xylene, hexachlorobenzene, 2,5-dichlorobiphenyl and p,p′-DDT, the elimination rate constants determined with the passive sampler method and the established method agreed within 18%. Poorer agreement (35%) was observed for 2,3,4-trichloroanisole and p-diisopropylbenzene because fewer data were obtained with the passive sampling method due to its lower sensitivity. The work shows that in-tissue passive sampling can be employed to measure contaminant elimination kinetics in fish. This opens up the possibility of studying contaminant kinetics in individual fish, thereby reducing the fish requirements and analytical costs for the determination of bioconcentration factors.     

Differentiated emission control strategy based on comprehensive evaluation of multi-media pollution: Case of mercury emission control

In order to comprehensively evaluate the environmental impact of multi-media mercury pollution under differentiated emission control strategies in China, a literature review and case studies were carried out. Increased human exposure to methylmercury was assessed through the dietary intake of residents in areas surrounding a typical coal-fired power plant and a zinc(Zn) smelter, located either on acid soil with paddy growth in southern China, or on alkaline soil with wheat growth in northern Chi...     

Organochlorine pesticide air-water exchange and bioconcentration in krill in the Ross Sea

Mean hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) concentrations, measured in seawater and air samples, confirmed the decline in levels of these compounds in Antarctic air and water. However, low α/γ-HCH ratios in air at the beginning of the sampling period suggest a predominance of fresh lindane entering the Antarctic atmosphere during the Austral spring probably due to current use in the Southern Hemisphere. Water-air fugacity ratios demonstrate the potential for HCH gas deposition to coastal Antarctic seas, while the water-air fugacity ratios for HCB imply that volatilization does not account for the observed decrease of HCB in surface seawater. HCH concentrations found in krill samples were correlated with seawater concentrations indicative of bioconcentration of HCHs from seawater.     

Persistence and Changes in Bioavailability of Dieldrin, DDE, and Heptachlor Epoxide in Earthworms Over 45 Years

The finding of dieldrin (88 ng/g), DDE (52 ng/g), and heptachlor epoxide (19 ng/g) in earthworms from experimental plots after a single moderate application (9 kg/ha) 45 years earlier attests to the remarkable persistence of these compounds in soil and their continued uptake by soil organisms. Half-lives (with 95 % confidence intervals) in earthworms, estimated from exponential decay equations, were as follows: dieldrin 4.9 (4.3–5.7) years, DDE 5.3 (4.7–6.1) years, and heptachlor epoxide 4.3 (3.8–4.9) years. These half-lives were not significantly different from those estimated after 20 years. Concentration factors (dry weight earthworm tissue/dry weight soil) were initially high and decreased mainly during the first 11 years after application. By the end of the study, average concentration factors were 1.5 (dieldrin), 4.0 (DDE), and 1.8 (heptachlor epoxide), respectively.     

Respiratory uptake kinetics of neutral hydrophobic organic chemicals in a marine benthic fish, Pseudopleuronectes yokohamae

We investigated the respiratory uptake kinetics of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organohalogen pesticides (OCPs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and 2,2′,4,4′-tetrabrominated diphenyl ether (BDE #47) in a marine benthic fish, Pseudopleuronectes yokohamae. The respiratory uptake efficiencies (E_W) of the chemicals, of which there have been no reports for the majority of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), were obtained by measuring the respiratory uptake rate constants (k₁) and the oxygen consumption rates of fish. Fish were exposed to water in which these chemicals were dissolved at environmentally relevant concentrations for 28 d, followed by 168 d of depuration in clean seawater. The k₁ and E_W values for 99 compounds were obtained, and they ranged from 2000 to 42 000 L kg-lipid⁻¹ d⁻¹ and from 0.060 to 1.3, respectively. The E_W values of the chemicals, except for PAHs, tended to increase with increasing values of the log octanol–water partition coefficients (K_OW) of the chemicals up to a log K_OW of 5. For log K_OW in the range 3–5, the E_W values in this study were much lower than those in a published study (about one-third). As a result of analysis by a two-phase resistance model, the resistance of transport rates to the lipid phase in this study was lower than was the case in the published study. These findings indicate that the E_W predicted by the published study for log K_OW in the range 3–5 may differ among fish species and water temperature, and further study is needed.