Biomonitoring of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Deposition in Greenland Using Historical Moss Herbarium Specimens Shows a Decrease in Pollution During the 20th Century

Abstract

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 highmolecular-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

Global ambient air quality monitoring: Can mosses help? A systematic meta-analysis of literature about passive moss biomonitoring

“…A rich body of literature demonstrates effectiveness of moss biomonitoring to detect changes in ambient levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (Kosior et al, 2015 ; Wu et al, 2014 ). In a long-term study, Martinez-Swatson et al ( 2020 ) used historical records of three species of moss namely, (Herbarium C)— Dicranum scoparium Hedw., Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) Schimp, and Racomitrium lanuginosum (Hedw.)…”

“…Several studies have used mass-based PAH to understand national/transnational transport. Recent studies employed moss-based biomonitoring to decipher transboundary atmospheric transport of PAHs (Martinez-Swatson et al, 2020 ). In a study in the Alpine areas and urban areas across central Japan (easternmost part of Asia), Oishi ( 2017 ) observed close association between the transport phenomena and molecular weights of PAHs: LMW-PAH has more localized emission sources while HMW-PAHs originated at more distance sources.…”

Moss and Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon in Malaysia: A Recent Ten-Year Evaluation

“…2) The samples were reconstituted to 5 mL with n-pentane: dichloromethane (90:10) after 8µg ml -1 of recovery standard mix. (Martinez-Swatson et al, 2020b) 1) The samples were dried in an oven 40 •C.…”

Mythbusters: Unravelling the pollutant uptake processes in mosses for air quality biomonitoring

“…These statements persist in the current biomonitoring literature despite the evidence showing otherwise (e.g. Spagnuolo et al, 2017;Favas et al, 2018;Martinez-Swatson et al, 2020;Petschinger et al, 2021).…”