Relationship Between Heavy Metals and Dissolved Organic Matter Released from Sediment by Bioturbation/Bioirrigation
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JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 75 (2019) 216– 223 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect www.elsevier.com/locate/jes Relationship between heavy metals and dissolved organic matter released from sediment by bioturbation/bioirrigation Yi He, Bin Men⁎, Xiaofang Yang, Yaxuan Li, Hui Xu, Dongsheng Wang State Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Organic matter (OM) is an important component of sediment. Bioturbation/bioirrigation can Received 4 December 2017 remobilize OM and heavy metals that were previously buried in the sediment. The Revised 22 March 2018 remobilization of buried organic matter, thallium (Tl), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu) and zinc Accepted 22 March 2018 (Zn) from sediment was studied in a laboratory experiment with three organisms: tubificid, Available online 29 March 2018 chironomid larvae and loach. Results showed that bioturbation/bioirrigation promoted the release of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and dissolved Tl, Cd, Cu and Zn, but only Keywords: dissolved Zn concentrations decreased with exposure time in overlying water. The Bioturbation/bioirrigation presence of organisms altered the compositions of DOM released from sediment, Heavy metal considerably increasing the percentage of fulvic acid-like materials (FA) and humic acid- Sediment like materials (HA). In addition, bioturbation/bioirrigation accelerated the growth and DOM reproduction of bacteria to enhance the proportion of soluble microbial byproduct-like materials (SMP). The DOM was divided into five regions in the three-dimensional excitation emission matrix (3D-EEM), and each part had different correlation with the dissolved heavy metal concentrations. Dissolved Cu had the best correlation with each of the DOM compositions, indicating that Cu in the sediment was in the organic-bound form. Furthermore, the organism type and heavy metal characteristics both played a role in influencing the remobilization of heavy metal. © 2018 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. Introduction scale of mining and heavy metal smelting, pollution due to heavy metals has become a serious problem in the water environment Sediment is a natural reservoir of nutrients, organic compounds (Singh and Kumar, 2017). In one example, the wastewater and various dissolved substances in aquatic ecosystems (Boehler discharge from a Zn/Pb smelter caused a sudden spike in Tl et al., 2017; Miller et al., 2014; Skierszkan et al., 2013; Watmough, pollution in the nearby waters (0.18–1.03 Tl μg/L) (NCNA, 2010). 2017; Woodruff et al., 1999; Yu et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2017; Zhu et More than 10 poisoning events involving Tl have occurred in al., 2017). In the aquatic environment, heavy metals from natural China since 1997 (Xiao et al., 2012). In addition, Cd, Cu and Zn are and anthropogenic sources find their way into surface water and commonly occurring heavy metals. Cd and Zn mines are generally accumulate in sediment (Ciutat et al., 2005; Xiong et al., intermixed due to their similar chemical properties (Gu et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2017). In recent years, with development of the 2013; Moore et al., 2011). Both Cu (Hopkin, 1989)andZn ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] (Bin Men). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jes.2018.03.031 1001-0742/© 2018 The Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 75 (2019) 216– 223 217 (Christensen, 1995) are microelements needed for animal growth, north China. The sediment was sieved with a mesh of 0.5 mm but high accumulation of these metals is harmful to health. aperture to remove gravel, plants, organisms and other Organic matter (OM) and heavy metals coexist in sediment, and impurities. The percentage of sediment particle sizes below OM in sediment has been found to have important implications 60 μm, pH value and loss on ignition of the sediment was for heavy metal speciation, transport, and bioavailability 85.7%, 7.6 and 7.9%, respectively. Then both the sediment and (Bianchi, 2007; Blankson and Klerks, 2017; Dong et al., 2017). OM water were preserved after pretreatment (He et al., 2015). The and heavy metal in sediment were found to combine into simple sediment was spiked with TlNO3, Cd(NO3)2·4H2O, CuSO4·5H2O ormixedligandcomplexesthroughadsorption or complexation, and ZnSO4·7H2O (AR) successively to obtain nominal Tl(I), Cd which affect their environmental behaviors in sediment (II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) concentrations of 11.7 ± 0.3 mg/kg, 11.3 ± (Drouillard et al., 1996; Szkokan-Emilson et al., 2014; 1.4 mg/kg, 587.1 ± 5.2 mg/kg and 715.3 ± 8.8 mg/kg in the Wallschlager et al., 1998). Researchers found that decrease of Ni sediment on a dry weight basis, respectively. Before being and Zn in the overlying water was more likely related to an added to the experimental units, the contaminated sediment association with the organic carbon in the sediment due to was aged in a dark environment for 2 months. Five hundred disturbance (Collins and Kinsela, 2010; Schroeder et al., 2017), grams of the contaminated sediment was placed in plastic while the association of metals with dissolved organic matter aquaria (height 13.8 cm, diameter 10 cm), and 500 mL aerated (DOM) increased significantly due to the loss of reactive Mn-oxide reservoir water was used as the overlying water. The units and Fe-oxyhydroxide sorption phases during reduction (Vink et were left to stand for 24 hr to settle sediment particles that al., 2010). However, research on the relationship between were re-suspended when the overlying water was introduced. remobilization of OM and heavy metals is lacking. The three organisms were cultivated under the experimental Furthermore, the activities of benthic organisms have been conditions for one week. The tubificids were cultivated in found to influence the exchange of dissolved substances in pump tap water, chironomid larvae were in a wet container sediment in different ways (Zhang et al., 2010). This includes with changing water daily and loach were kept in an aerated the mediation of flux, which is due to direct interception by water. benthic organisms, such as the sediment particle re-suspen- sion by the movement of the organisms, ingestion and 1.2. Experimental setup biological sedimentation. Also, indirect effects of change on the physical properties of sediment are caused by building A total of 16 aquaria were randomly assigned to one of four pipelines and depressions with bioturbation/bioirrigation, different treatments: without organisms for control, with which also change the physical and chemical condition of tubificid, with chironomid larvae or with loach. The design water simultaneously (Graf and Rosenberg, 1997; Svensson, included 4 parallel units in each treatment. Five hundred 1998). In addition, bioturbation/bioirrigation causes the trans- individuals of tubificid, 62 individuals of chironomid larvae, or mission of particulate matter in the highest redox reduction 1 individual loach were introduced into each biological unit, zones to enhance the oxidation and reduction for OM respectively. All 16 units were placed in an artificial climate remineralization (Aller, 1994). Bioturbation/bioirrigation also chamber (RXZ intelligent, Ningbo Jiangnan Instrument Fac- could alter the speciation and distribution of heavy metals in tory). The temperature was maintained at 23°C, humidity the sediment to encourage their release. Several studies have remained at 50% and the daily period of light:dark was 16:8 hr demonstrated that bioturbation/bioirrigation has an effect on throughout the entire experiment. the transport of heavy metals across the interface of sediment and water (Blankson and Klerks, 2016, 2017; Brumbaugh et al., 1.3. Sampling and analysis 2013; He et al., 2015, 2017; Men et al., 2016; Schaller, 2014). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Twenty milliliters of overlying water was sampled with a bioturbation/bioirrigation by different types of organisms on polypropylene syringe at days 1, 3, 5, and 7 after addition of the transport of DOM and heavy metals from sediment into animals, and filtered through a 0.45 μm mixed cellulose ester the overlying water. We studied the effect of different species, membrane filter (0.45 μm, d = 25 mm, Millipore, USA). Each the molecular weight distribution of the OM and the correla- sample was put into a brown glass bottle and placed in a dark tion between these organic substances and concentrations of environment at 4°C. The DOM concentration was detected by heavy metals in the overlying water respectively. Four a total organic carbon analyzer (TOC-VCPH, Shimadzu, Japan). experimental conditions were set up simultaneously in this The composition of DOM was determined by three-dimen- paper: control (without organisms), with tubificid (Limnodrilus sional excitation emission matrix (3D-EEM) fluorescence hoffmeisteri), with chironomid larvae (Chironomus plumosus spectroscopy (F-4500, Hitachi, Japan). Heavy metal concentra- larvae) and with loach (Misgurnus bipartitus). tions were detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS, 7500a, Agilent, USA). The molecular weight distribution of DOM was characterized by the high- performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) method, 1. Materials and methods using a high-performance liquid chromatography system (Waters 1525, Waters, USA) coupled with a size exclusion 1.1. Preparation of contaminated sediments and aquaria chromatography column (Shodex Protein KW-802.5, Shoko, Japan). Samples were filtered through a 0.22 μm mixed Sediment and water were collected from uncontaminated cellulose ester membrane filter (0.22 μm, d =25mm, surface sediment (0–30 cm) in the Ming Tombs Reservoir in Millipore, USA) before analysis by HPSEC. 218 JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 75 (2019) 216– 223 1.4. Data analysis (HA), and a small amount of fulvic acid-like materials (FA) in the four treatments.