Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition In
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Downloaded from orbit.dtu.dk on: Sep 26, 2021 Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20th Century Martinez-Swatson, Karen; Mihály, Eszter; Lange, Christian; Ernst, Madeleine; Dela Cruz, Majbrit; Price, Michelle J.; Mikkelsen, Teis Nørgaard; Christensen, Jan H.; Lundholm, Nina; Rønsted, Nina Published in: Frontiers in Plant Science Link to article, DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 Publication date: 2020 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link back to DTU Orbit Citation (APA): Martinez-Swatson, K., Mihály, E., Lange, C., Ernst, M., Dela Cruz, M., Price, M. J., Mikkelsen, T. N., Christensen, J. H., Lundholm, N., & Rønsted, N. (2020). Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Depositionth in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20 Century. 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ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 15 July 2020 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20th Century Karen Martinez-Swatson 1, Eszter Miha´ ly 1, Christian Lange 1, Madeleine Ernst 1,2, Majbrit Dela Cruz 3, Michelle J. Price 4, Teis Nørgaard Mikkelsen 5, Jan H. Christensen 3, Nina Lundholm 1 and Nina Rønsted 1,6* Edited by: Steven Dodsworth, 1 Natural History Museum of Denmark, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2 Center for University of Bedfordshire, Newborn Screening, Department of Congenital Disorders, Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark, 3 Department of United Kingdom Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark, 4 Conservatoire et Reviewed by: Jardin Botaniques de la Ville de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, 5 Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark, 6 Science and Conservation, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kalaheo, HI, Anne D. Jungblut, United States Natural History Museum, United Kingdom Silvia Pressel, Although most point sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polycyclic Natural History Museum, United Kingdom aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are at lower latitudes, the Arctic region is contaminated. In *Correspondence: particular, PAHs now dominate the POP body burden of the region’s marine biota at the Nina Rønsted lower trophic levels. Greenlandic Inuits have the most elevated levels of POPs in their [email protected] blood compared to any other population, due to their consumption of seal meat and other Specialty section: marine mammals. PAHs, the by-products of the incomplete combustion of petroleum This article was submitted to products, are known carcinogens and have been shown to affect the immune system, Plant Systematics and Evolution, reproduction, endocrine functions, and the nervous system. With industrial activities and a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science climate change set to increase local PAH emissions, it is paramount to document changes Received: 22 March 2020 in atmospheric PAH deposition to further investigate PAH exposure in the region and Accepted: 30 June 2020 attribute contaminations to their sources. As a measure of atmospheric pollution, we Published: 15 July 2020 sampled bryophyte herbarium specimens of three common and widespread species Citation: Martinez-Swatson K, Miha´ ly E, collected in Greenland between the 1920s and 1970s after which time new collections Lange C, Ernst M, Dela Cruz M, were not available. They were analyzed for 19 PAHs using GC-MS (gas chromatography Price MJ, Mikkelsen TN, mass spectrometry). The presence of more low-molecular-weight PAHs than high- Christensen JH, Lundholm N and Rønsted N (2020) Biomonitoring of molecular-weight PAHs is evidence that the PAH contamination in Greenland is due to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon long-range transport rather than originating from local sources. The results show peaks in Deposition in Greenland Using fi Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens PAH atmospheric deposition in the rst part of the 19th century followed by a trend of Shows a Decrease in Pollution During decrease, which mirror global trends in atmospheric pollution known from those periods. th the 20 Century. PAHs associated with wood and fossil-fuel combustion decrease in the 1970s coinciding Front. Plant Sci. 11:1085. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 with the disappearance of charcoal pits and foundries in Europe and North America, and a Frontiers in Plant Science | www.frontiersin.org 1 July 2020 | Volume 11 | Article 1085 Martinez-Swatson et al. Airborne Pollution in Greenlandic Mosses shift away from domestic heating with wood during the 19th century. The results highlight the value of bryophytes as bioindicators to measure PAH atmospheric pollution as well as the unrealized potential of herbaria as historical records of environmental change. Keywords: atmospheric pollution, bioindicators, bryophytes, Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), herbaria, historical trends, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) INTRODUCTION regulation, Arctic warming and ice retreat due to climate change, is causing their release into the atmosphere from sinks such as Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) comprise toxic and bio- water, snow, ice, and soils (Ma et al., 2011). accumulative compounds, that are introduced into the Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of POPs environment through anthropogenic activities since the 1900s composed of carbon and hydrogen with two or more benzene (Bengtson Nash, 2011). They are used globally in agricultural, rings. They are semi-volatile, lipophilic, and resistant to heat and industrial and health applications (Corsolini et al., 2016). Due to corrosion (Masih et al., 2012; Das et al., 2014). They can be their effective environmental dispersal mechanisms and their divided into two categories: low molecular weight compounds resistance to degradation, they have contaminated all ecosystems (with less than four benzene rings) and high molecular weight globally, and they pose a substantial risk to human health and the compounds (with four or more benzene rings) (Kim et al., 2013) environment (Bengtson Nash, 2011). As their distribution is (Figure 1). They were one of the first groups of atmospheric wide-ranging and across national borders, there has been pollutants to be identified as carcinogenic, with carcinogenicity international cooperation to stop or substantially reduce the increasing with the molecular weight of the compound (Ames release of a growing number of these chemicals. Most notably in et al., 1972). PAHs are formed and emitted in large quantities as the form of the Stockholm Convention, first adopted in 2001, to the by-products of the incomplete combustion of petroleum protect human health and the environment from POPs and products like coal, fuel, and gas (Jiao et al., 2017). They are signed by 182 countries (UNEP, 2009; UNEP, 2013). Although hydrophobic and difficult to degrade, which therefore leads to global restrictions have led to a reduction in the release of POPs, increased accumulation in soils. Their levels have been shown to their levels in the environment and within animal populations be increasing within Arctic marine biota at lower trophic levels in still remain high enough to elicit concern (Sonne, 2010; Bengtson contrast to other POPs that are in decline, and PAHs now Nash, 2011; AMAP, 2018). Exposure to POPs in humans and dominate the POP body burden of Arctic invertebrates and animals has been shown to increase the risk of adverse effects on fish (Laender et al., 2011). Like with other POPs, atmospheric the immune system (Corsini et al., 2014; Oulhote et al., 2017), transport is the main mechanism for PAHs produced at lower reproduction (Vested et al., 2014; Dietz et al., 2018), endocrine latitudes to find their way to Arctic regions. functions (Hotchkiss et al., 2008; Berg et al., 2016; Ahmed et al., The lipophilicity of many POPs, including PAHs, accelerates 2019), the nervous system (Dingemans et al., 2011), and to cause their accumulation in plant and animal tissues, magnifying in cancer (Alavanja and Bonner, 2012), among others. concentration up the food chain (Franzaring and van der Eerden, Although most sources of POPs originate at lower latitudes, the 2000). Furthermore, they are metabolized in animal tissue, Arctic region is known to be contaminated. The main transport rendering them carcinogenic (Zhang et al., 2016). They usually mechanism for POPs is long-range