Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) Century
Although most point sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are at lower latitudes, the Arctic region is contaminated. In particular, PAHs now dominate the POP body burden of the region’s marine biota at the lower trophic levels. Greenlandi...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7373755 2023-05-15T15:16:40+02:00 Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) 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 2020-07-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7373755/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7373755/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 Copyright © 2020 Martinez-Swatson, Mihály, Lange, Ernst, Dela Cruz, Price, Mikkelsen, Christensen, Lundholm and Rønsted http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. CC-BY Front Plant Sci Plant Science Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 2020-08-09T00:24:20Z Although most point sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are at lower latitudes, the Arctic region is contaminated. In particular, PAHs now dominate the POP body burden of the region’s marine biota at the lower trophic levels. Greenlandic Inuits have the most elevated levels of POPs in their blood compared to any other population, due to their consumption of seal meat and other marine mammals. PAHs, the by-products of the incomplete combustion of petroleum products, are known carcinogens and have been shown to affect the immune system, reproduction, endocrine functions, and the nervous system. With industrial activities and climate change set to increase local PAH emissions, it is paramount to document changes in atmospheric PAH deposition to further investigate PAH exposure in the region and attribute contaminations to their sources. As a measure of atmospheric pollution, we sampled bryophyte herbarium specimens of three common and widespread species collected in Greenland between the 1920s and 1970s after which time new collections were not available. They were analyzed for 19 PAHs using GC-MS (gas chromatography mass spectrometry). The presence of more low-molecular-weight PAHs than high-molecular-weight PAHs is evidence that the PAH contamination in Greenland is due to long-range transport rather than originating from local sources. The results show peaks in PAH atmospheric deposition in the first part of the 19th century followed by a trend of decrease, which mirror global trends in atmospheric pollution known from those periods. PAHs associated with wood and fossil-fuel combustion decrease in the 1970s coinciding with the disappearance of charcoal pits and foundries in Europe and North America, and a shift away from domestic heating with wood during the 19(th) 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 ... Text Arctic Climate change Greenland greenlandic inuits PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Greenland Frontiers in Plant Science 11 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Plant Science |
spellingShingle |
Plant Science 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 Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) Century |
topic_facet |
Plant Science |
description |
Although most point sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are at lower latitudes, the Arctic region is contaminated. In particular, PAHs now dominate the POP body burden of the region’s marine biota at the lower trophic levels. Greenlandic Inuits have the most elevated levels of POPs in their blood compared to any other population, due to their consumption of seal meat and other marine mammals. PAHs, the by-products of the incomplete combustion of petroleum products, are known carcinogens and have been shown to affect the immune system, reproduction, endocrine functions, and the nervous system. With industrial activities and climate change set to increase local PAH emissions, it is paramount to document changes in atmospheric PAH deposition to further investigate PAH exposure in the region and attribute contaminations to their sources. As a measure of atmospheric pollution, we sampled bryophyte herbarium specimens of three common and widespread species collected in Greenland between the 1920s and 1970s after which time new collections were not available. They were analyzed for 19 PAHs using GC-MS (gas chromatography mass spectrometry). The presence of more low-molecular-weight PAHs than high-molecular-weight PAHs is evidence that the PAH contamination in Greenland is due to long-range transport rather than originating from local sources. The results show peaks in PAH atmospheric deposition in the first part of the 19th century followed by a trend of decrease, which mirror global trends in atmospheric pollution known from those periods. PAHs associated with wood and fossil-fuel combustion decrease in the 1970s coinciding with the disappearance of charcoal pits and foundries in Europe and North America, and a shift away from domestic heating with wood during the 19(th) 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 ... |
format |
Text |
author |
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 |
author_facet |
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 |
author_sort |
Martinez-Swatson, Karen |
title |
Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) Century |
title_short |
Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) Century |
title_full |
Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) Century |
title_fullStr |
Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) Century |
title_full_unstemmed |
Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20(th) Century |
title_sort |
biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon deposition in greenland using historical moss herbarium specimens shows a decrease in pollution during the 20(th) century |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7373755/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Greenland greenlandic inuits |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Greenland greenlandic inuits |
op_source |
Front Plant Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7373755/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2020 Martinez-Swatson, Mihály, Lange, Ernst, Dela Cruz, Price, Mikkelsen, Christensen, Lundholm and Rønsted http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.01085 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Plant Science |
container_volume |
11 |
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