Anthropogenic pollutants are ubiquitous across environmental media, including air, water, sediment, and biota. While the role of legacy pollutants in aquatic systems has been well-documented, much of their fate and interactions with diverse ecosystem components and functions are still poorly understood. Emerging pollutants (e.g., pesticides, flame retardants) challenge our understanding of the full effects of contaminants in the environment. Emerging methodologies, including targeted and non-targeted laboratory analyses, and modeling approaches continue to better define the fate of these pollutants. This session welcomes abstracts focusing on any combination of field, laboratory, and modeling studies focusing on source, fate, and transport of emerging and legacy pollutants through aquatic systems. We welcome studies using transdisciplinary approaches and integrating across the freshwater-to-marine continuum to improve mechanistic understanding of pollutants in aquatic ecosystems.
Lead Organizer: Christopher Filstrup, University of Minnesota Duluth (filstrup@d.umn.edu)
Co-organizers:
Kathryn Schreiner, University of Minnesota Duluth (kschrein@d.umn.edu)
Euan Reavie, University of Minnesota Duluth (ereavie@d.umn.edu)
Bridget Ulrich, University of Minnesota Duluth (ulrichb@d.umn.edu)
Chan Lan Chun, University of Minnesota Duluth (chun0157@d.umn.edu)
Brian Lenell, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Great Lakes National Program Office (lenell.brian@epa.gov)
Presentations
05:00 PM
CHEMICAL DISTRIBUTION AND ECOTOXICOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF PLASTIC LEACHATES IN SOIL: A CASE STUDY OF LISLA LYNGØYNA ISLAND (5710)
Primary Presenter: Alessio Gomiero, Norwegian Research Centre (algo@norceresearch.no)
In the last decade, the environmental effects of plastic pollution in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems have been reported worldwide, emphasizing the adverse effects of the generated microplastics after degradation under natural conditions. In particular, the distribution and accumulation of plastic waste at several sites along the West Coast of Norway have received special attention as “open lab” where large amounts of stranded marine litter have been buried over time and several ecological processes are still occurring. In this study, the occurrence and biological effects of the leachates generated from buried plastic waste on the so called Norwegian “plastic island” Lisla Lyngøyna have been investigated. Three soil layers have been collected at three different sampling sites containing high, medium, and low plastic pollution levels. The chemical composition of the leachates generated from soil samples was investigated using a chromatography system coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The outcomes point out the occurrence of different type of additives in the investigated samples. The results of chemical analyses were compared with the ecotoxicity measurements on the same samples using standard testing based on Daphnia spp, Selenastrum spp and three plant seeds species. Overall, medium-to-absent toxicity was scored by the battery of adopted ecotoxicity bioassays. This study points out the need of an integrated chemical, ecotoxicological and ecological approach to define both the environmental risk and the appropriate action toward a sustainable management of plastic pollution.
05:15 PM
Toxicity of two organic UV filters, oxybenzone and octocrylene, to Antarctic natural microbial communities (5957)
Primary Presenter: Pedro Echeveste, Universidad de las Islas Baleares (p.echeveste@uib.eu)
Human presence in Antarctica has grown significantly in the last decades, receiving ~4,500 scientists and technical staff at research stations and ~75,000 tourists annually. To protect from the detrimental effects of ultraviolet radiation (UVR), visitors are prone to use sunscreens, which inevitably end up released into the environment. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of two of the most common organic UV filters, oxybenzone and octocrylene, on natural microbial communities of Fildes Bay (King George Island), regarding changes in their community composition, cell abundance, photosynthetic efficiency (Ω), metabolism, as well as the nutrients availability to them. Overall, oxybenzone had a greater impact than octocrylene, with a mean inhibitory concentration on the whole phytoplankton community of 5.9 and 4.0 mg L-1 in the absence or presence of UVR, respectively, being >50 mg L-1 in the case of octocrylene. However, the smallest microorganisms were already affected by both sunscreens at 0.5 mg L-1, especially in the presence of UVR. Nutrients availability increased as the concentrations of both chemicals augmented, above all with oxybenzone and UVR. Both UV filters reduced both primary production, in the case of oxybenzone reducing Ω by a 30%; and respiration, more pronounced with oxybenzone in the absence of UVR and octocrylene on its presence. Although these results point to a higher toxicity of oxybenzone than octocrylene, both UV filters should be considered for regulation according to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.
05:30 PM
Distributions of tritium in the marine water and biota around Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (6223)
Primary Presenter: Satoru Ohtsuki, Fukushima University (s2271003@ipc.fukushima-u.ac.jp)
For decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS), it is one of the biggest problems to treat the radioactive contaminated stagnant water in the building. It is difficult to remove H-3 from the contaminated water by only Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) treatment. Thus, the Japanese Government announced to release the ALPS treated water containing H-3. To predict the alteration of the dose rate of the marine biota by the change of H-3 concentration in marine water after the release of ALPS water, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of H-3 in marine ecosystem and this nuclide pre-release level. In this study, we evaluated H-3 the marine biota around in the waters off Aomori and Iwate prefectures from 2003 to 2012, as the background data of the Pacific Ocean near North East Japan. In this study, the concentration of H-3 in seawater, tissue free water tritium (TFWT) and organically bound tritium (OBT) were measured. Concentration Ratio (CR), the ratio of the concentration of marine biota and seawater for TFWT, was almost 1.0, meaning the concentration of H-3 in marine biota was almost equal to seawater.
05:45 PM
LINKING CONTAMINANT FATE AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING IN THE OPEN-OCEAN GULF OF MEXICO: A DECADAL SYNTHESIS OF RESEARCH (7186)
Primary Presenter: Isabel Romero, University of South Florida (isabelromero@usf.edu)
The open-ocean Gulf of Mexico (GoM) was the most impacted habitat by the toxic mixture of hydrocarbons and dispersants released during the Deepwater horizon oil spill (DWHOS) in 2010. The DEEPEND consortium has been conducting continuous observations of deep-sea micronekton to determine the impact of the spill on the ecosystem. With respect to the exposure to contaminants, we focus on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are known for their mutagenic, genotoxic, and carcinogenic effects. We will present results from an eight year period after the spill for analysis of PAHs in deep-pelagic fishes, cephalopods, shrimps, and gelatinous zooplankton. Results showed a 10-fold increase in PAH concentration during 2010-2011 compared to pre-spill values, which then decreased over the following years for all taxonomic groups except cephalopods. We also found that PAHs were still present in elevated concentrations years after the DWHOS, but only in unhatched eggs, indicating a strong maternal transfer of contaminants. This evidence suggests a long-term bioaccumulation of contaminants in the ecosystem, potentially linked to declines in population levels of all taxa studied, which have dropped substantially by more than 50% since the spill. The tight trophic connections within the oceanic GoM also indicate that reductions in abundance at intermediate levels could have a ripple effect throughout the entire system. Ongoing studies include connectivity between higher (e.g., tuna) and lower trophic levels as well as other contaminants (PCBs, pesticides, emerging contaminants).
06:00 PM
UV filters effect on coastal marine planktonic microorganisms (7285)
Primary Presenter: Eva Sintes, Instituto Español de Oceanografía-CSIC (eva.sintes@ieo.csic.es)
UV filters contained in solar sunscreens and other personal care items are increasingly released to aquatic systems. Recent studies have shown a negative effect on macroorganisms and selected microbial species. However, information on the effect on natural planktonic communities remains scarce. Exposing natural prokaryotic and microbial planktonic communities to different organic and inorganic UV filters at concentrations between 2.5 µgL-1 and 2.5 mgL-1 resulted in increased respiration rates and differing enzymatic activity rates. Microbial communities (including prokaryotes and eukaryotes <200 µm) had higher respiration rates and lipase activity when exposed to inorganic as compared to organic UV filters, whereas prokaryotic communities showed a more pronounced response to organic than to inorganic UV filters. Exposure of prokaryotes to avobenzone at low concentrations resulted in increased respiration rates and alpha- and betaglucosidase activity rates compared to sulisobenzone amended communities, and higher lipase activity compared to unamended prokaryotic communities. However, enzymatic activities of communities amended with the higher concentrations of avobenzone (2.5 mgL-1) were inhibited. Taken together, our results indicate that UV filters alter the metabolism of natural microbial communities, with impacts on the food web and the carbon cycle of aquatic ecosystems.
SS110B Contaminant Fate and Transport in Aquatic Systems and Their Interactive Effects on Ecosystem Functioning
Description
Time: 5:00 PM
Date: 5/6/2023
Room: Sala Ibiza A