Lichens and mosses as polonium and uranium biomonitors on Sobieszewo Island

Boryło, Alicja; Romańczyk, Grzegorz; Skwarzec, Bogdan

doi:10.1007/s10967-016-5079-8

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Plants and aquatic organisms have been reported to accumulate U from soils and water in the range of 0.08-3500 mg kg −1 (Huang et al, 1998;Dienemann et al, Frontiers in Environmental Science frontiersin.org Chang et al, 2005;Sakamoto et al, 2008;Viehweger and Geipel, 2010;Caldwell et al, 2012;Cordeiro et al, 2016;Boryło et al, 2017;Li C et al, 2019;Bergmann and Graca, 2020). Hyperaccumulation of U from contaminated sites has been reported for several plant species and aquatic organisms (Dienemann et al, 2002;Chang et al, 2005;Viehweger and Geipel, 2010;Caldwell et al, 2012;Li C et al, 2019;Bergmann and Graca, 2020).…”

Section: Biota Accumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence of uranium, thorium and rare earth elements in the environment: A review

Patel

Sharma²,

Maity

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Uranium, thorium, and rare earth elements (REEs) are important strategic elements in today’s world with a range of applications in high and green technology and power generation. The expected increase in demand for U, Th, and REEs in the coming decades also raises a number of questions about their supply risks and potential environmental impacts. This review provides an overview of the current literature on the distribution of these elements in different environmental compartments. For example, the processes of extraction, use, and disposal of U-, Th-, and REE-containing materials have been reported to result in elevated concentrations of these elements in air, in some places even exceeding permissible limits. In natural waters, the above processes resulted in concentrations as high as 69.2, 2.5, and 24.8 mg L−1 for U, Th, and REE, respectively, while in soils and sediments they sometimes reach 542, 75, and 56.5 g kg−1, respectively. While plants generally only take up small amounts of U, Th, and REE, some are known to be hyperaccumulators, containing up to 3.5 and 13.0 g kg−1 of U and REE, respectively. It appears that further research is needed to fully comprehend the fate and toxicological effects of U, Th, and REEs. Moreover, more emphasis should be placed on developing alternative methods and technologies for recovery of these elements from industrial and mining wastes.

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Section: Biota Accumulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Occurrence of uranium, thorium and rare earth elements in the environment: A review

Patel

Sharma²,

Maity

et al. 2023

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…There are large gaps in the current knowledge of radioecological situation in these areas. Lichen and mosses were selected as sample matrices for this study due to their ability to accumulate and concentrate radionuclides from the surface air, enabling their use as biomonitors of contaminants (Tuominen and Jaakkola 1973 ; di Lella et al 2003 ; Borylo et al 2017 ; Galhardi et al 2017 ). Besides global and local radionuclide depositions, other factors affecting the accumulated radionuclide concentration in lichen are, e.g., lichen species, the specific sampling site, and climatic factors (Borylo et al 2017 ; Galhardi et al 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

137Cs and isotopic ratios of Pu and U in lichens and mosses from Russian Arctic areas

Dutheil

Paatero

Rodushkin

et al. 2023

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Knowledge of past anthropogenic sources of radionuclide contamination in Russian Arctic areas is important to assess the radioecological situation of these less-studied regions. Therefore, we investigated the sources of radionuclide contamination in Russian Arctic in the 1990s. Lichen and moss samples were collected from 1993 to 1996 in Kola Peninsula, Franz Josef Land, and few other locations. The activity concentration of 137Cs was determined from the archived samples by gamma spectrometry in 2020. After radiochemical separation of Pu and U isotopes from the lichens and mosses, mass ratios 240Pu/239Pu, 234U/238U, 235U/238U, and 236U/238U were determined by mass spectrometry. 137Cs activity concentrations at the sampling date were found to vary from 3.1 ± 1.4 (Inari, Finnish-Russian border) to 303 ± 7 (Kola Peninsula) Bq/kg. The ranges of isotopic ratios were 0.0592 ± 0.0007 to 0.253 ± 0.082 for 240Pu/239Pu, (4.89 ± 3.91) × 10−5 to (6.86 ± 0.04) × 10−5 for 234U/238U, 0.0072104(21) to 0.007376(41) for 235U/238U, and from below 1 × 10−7 to (2.65 ± 0.19) × 10−6 for 236U/238U, respectively. Based on the measured isotopic ratios and characteristic isotopic ratios of known contamination sources, the main Pu and U sources in the sampled lichens and mosses are global fallout, the Chernobyl accident, and possibly local nuclear activities. These results contribute to further understanding of past nuclear events and resulting nuclear contamination in Russian Arctic terrestrial areas.

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“…Mosses are widely used as biomonitors of atmospheric deposition because they are broadly distributed (essentially found everywhere), relatively easy to sample, and have a high capacity to trap and accumulate atmospheric particles [1][2][3][4]. Moss biomonitoring has been widely used to assess the atmospheric deposition of nitrogen [5][6][7][8][9], trace elements [10][11][12][13], persistent organic pollutants [14][15][16][17], microplastics [18,19], and radionuclides [20][21][22]. Numerous studies have shown that radionuclides accumulate in mosses [23][24][25], making them effective biomonitors for detecting radionuclides that occur in trace atmospheric concentrations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Precipitation on the Spatial Distribution of 210Pb, 7Be, 40K and 137Cs in Moss

et al. 2023

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Mosses have been widely used as biomonitors of a variety of atmospheric pollutants, including radionuclides. Here we determine the radionuclide activity concentration of 210Pb, 137Cs, 7Be, and 40K in moss tissue (Hylocomium splendens) collected from 24 sites across Ireland and assess the influence of precipitation on radionuclide spatial distribution. Lead-210 was the most abundant radionuclide (range: 226–968 Bq kg–1), followed by 7Be (range: <DL—604 Bq kg–1), 40K (range: <DL—155 Bq kg–1), and 137Cs (range: <DL—41 Bq kg–1). Albeit nearly thirty years since the Chernobyl disaster, 137Cs activity concentration was detected at 67% of the study sites; however, the spatial distribution was not fully consistent with the 1986 Chernobyl deposition pattern. Rather, 137Cs was weakly correlated with rainfall, with higher concentrations along the west coast, suggesting that the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident was also a potential source. Average annual rainfall was a significant predictor of 210Pb activity (linear regression, R2 = 0.63, p < 0.001). As such, the highest radionuclide activity was observed for 210Pb (average: 541 Bq kg–1), owing to the high levels of precipitation across the study sites (average: 1585 mm). In contrast, 7Be or 40K were not correlated with precipitation; rather, 40K and 7Be were significantly correlated to each other (rs = 0.7), suggesting that both radionuclides were transferred from the substrate or through soil re-suspension. Precipitation is widely reported as an important factor in the spatial distribution of radionuclides; however, only 210Pb activity concentrations in moss were strongly influenced by precipitation in the current study.

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Lichens and mosses as polonium and uranium biomonitors on Sobieszewo Island

Cited by 25 publications

References 28 publications

Occurrence of uranium, thorium and rare earth elements in the environment: A review

Occurrence of uranium, thorium and rare earth elements in the environment: A review

137Cs and isotopic ratios of Pu and U in lichens and mosses from Russian Arctic areas

Influence of Precipitation on the Spatial Distribution of 210Pb, 7Be, 40K and 137Cs in Moss

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