Potency of (doped) rare earth oxide particles and their constituent metals to inhibit algal growth and induce direct toxic effects

Lanthanide (LNs) release into the environment is expected to greatly increase in the coming years due to a high demand for new technologies. However there is a gap in the ecological risk assessment of these metals because most of the ecotoxicological studies have been performed with only one element, although they are usually found in nature as a group. This research evaluated the effects of mixtures of three lanthanides, cerium (Ce), gadolinium (Gd), and lutetium (Lu), representative of the light, middle and heavy rare earth elements, respectively, on seven aquatic species (A. fischeri, R. subcapitata, C. vulgaris, B. calyciflorus, H. incongruens, D. magna and D. rerio). Lanthanide content decreased over time in all toxicity test media and it was observed that LN sedimentation starts at the beginning of the tests with a steep decline of the available LN amount. Potential toxic effects of LNs were observed only in five species of the seven studied, predominantly in the unicellular organism (A. fischeri) and in the organisms belonging to the lower trophic levels (R. subcapitata and B. calyciflorus). The multi-toxicity approach performed in this study showed synergistic effects in tests performed with the bacteria A. fischeri and the algae R. subcapitata, and antagonistic effects for the rotifer B. calyciflorus. Although predicting the response of aquatic organisms exposed to multi-elements is not an easy task and can be masked by potential interactions with other compounds or even by nutrient removal. The variation in toxic action among species observed in this study reveals that lanthanide interaction in toxicity mechanisms should not be discarded, and supports that further studies with LN mixtures are required to properly understand their toxic behaviour in nature ecosystems.CAPSULE Mixtures of lanthanides showed toxic effects in bacteria and organisms of low trophic levels, with potential synergistic or antagonistic effects depending on the studied organism.

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“…Also Fe could have been less available due to LNs competing with Fe for binding with EDTA. Joonas et al (2017) observed in an assay with R.…”

Section: Toxicity Testsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Assessment of the toxic effects of mixtures of three lanthanides (Ce, Gd, Lu) to aquatic biota

Romero‐Freire

Joonas

Muna

et al. 2019

Science of The Total Environment

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“…It also has been shown that Ln can change the microbial community's structure: a 15-day exposure to CeO 2 NPs increased the proportion of algae and decreased the proportion of bacteria in the biofilm [76]. The toxicity study of nine (doped) lanthanide oxides for crustaceans Daphnia magna (48 h immobilisation test) and algae Raphidocelis subcapitata (72 h growth inhibition assay) showed that the toxicity of the most toxic compounds was due to toxic heavy metals that were used as dopants that were shed into the test environment (e.g., Ni from LaNiO 4 ) [77,78]. Thus, Ln based NPs are neither the most toxic NPs [79,80] nor safe for the aquatic biota.…”

Section: Toxicity To Aquatic Biotamentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential Hazard of Lanthanides and Lanthanide-Based Nanoparticles to Aquatic Ecosystems: Data Gaps, Challenges and Future Research Needs Derived from Bibliometric Analysis

et al. 2020

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Lanthanides (Ln), applied mostly in the form of nanoparticles (NPs), are critical to emerging high-tech and green energy industries due to their distinct physicochemical properties. The resulting anthropogenic input of Ln and Ln-based NPs into aquatic environment might create a problem of emerging contaminants. Thus, information on the biological effects of Ln and Ln-based NPs is urgently needed for relevant environmental risk assessment. In this mini-review, we made a bibliometric survey on existing scientific literature with the main aim of identifying the most important data gaps on Ln and Ln-based nanoparticles’ toxicity to aquatic biota. We report that the most studied Ln for ecotoxicity are Ce and Ln, whereas practically no information was found for Nd, Tb, Tm, and Yb. We also discuss the challenges of the research on Ln ecotoxicity, such as relevance of nominal versus bioavailable concentrations of Ln, and point out future research needs (long-term toxicity to aquatic biota and toxic effects of Ln to bottom-dwelling species).

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“…Future directions in the REE research can be suggested based on our literature search. One obvious research area is the investigation of biological effects of REEs using biochemical, cell biological, and toxicological techniques (Pałasz and Czekaj 2000;Jin et al 2017;Joonas et al 2017;Turra 2018;Romero-Freire et al 2019;Dubé et al 2019;Pałasz et al 2019). Another equally important field is the remediation of REEs in the environment (Su 2017;Yuan et al 2018;Wang 2018;Cheng et al 2018;Wei et al 2019;Jalali et al 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The growing usage of REEs in modern technologies accompanies unavoidable environmental concerns, as REEs have been found to exert toxic effects on various organisms (Turra 2018), while some REEs showed cytoprotective activity (Pałasz and Czekaj 2000). For example, many aquatic organisms were found vulnerable to toxic effects of REEs (Romero-Freire et al 2019;Joonas et al 2017). Some of the toxic effects of REEs were found to be mediated by gene expression changes (Dubé et al 2019) or by directly binding to target proteins (Pałasz and Czekaj 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trend of the research on rare earth elements in environmental science

Kang

2020

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Rare earth elements (REEs) consist of 17 transition metals which are the 15 lanthanides and yttrium and scandium. These elements have great utility in the production of modern technology, especially electronics. However, these materials may pose a serious threat to the environment if handled or disposed of incorrectly; the effects of which are being studied by the field of environmental toxicology. A multitude of studies have indicated that rare earth elements have harmful impacts on biological life, making a reform to the disposal of rare earth elements increasingly pressing. Scientific interest in REEs is constantly rising due to the increased use of REEs due to their utility. In this paper, we display our meta-analysis of a scientific literature database, PubMed, to quantitatively map the temporal flux of research and interest pertaining to REEs, especially in the field of environmental science. Our findings may prove useful for planning research on REEs or predicting the future of REE usage.

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Potency of (doped) rare earth oxide particles and their constituent metals to inhibit algal growth and induce direct toxic effects

Cited by 45 publications

References 35 publications

Assessment of the toxic effects of mixtures of three lanthanides (Ce, Gd, Lu) to aquatic biota

Assessment of the toxic effects of mixtures of three lanthanides (Ce, Gd, Lu) to aquatic biota

Potential Hazard of Lanthanides and Lanthanide-Based Nanoparticles to Aquatic Ecosystems: Data Gaps, Challenges and Future Research Needs Derived from Bibliometric Analysis

Trend of the research on rare earth elements in environmental science

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