Less-Studied Technology-Critical Elements (Nb, Ta, Ga, In, Ge, Te) in the Marine Environment: Review on Their Concentrations in Water and Organisms

Abstract

The development in recent years of new technological and energy-related applications has increased the use and demand of a specific group of trace elements (Technology-Critical Elements, TCEs). Among the TCEs, there are a number of elements (Nb, Ta, Ga, In, Ge, Te) for which their biogeochemical cycles and their ecotoxicology and uptake by biota has been scarcely studied; they are known as Less-Studied TCEs (LSTCEs). Here we present a review on the concentrations of LSTCEs in marine waters and biota. We show that whereas oceanic profiles have been reported for all LSTCEs, and their geochemical behavior is well-constrained for some of them (e.g., Ga, In, Ge), only very few studies are available on the concentrations and behavior of these elements in estuarine and coastal waters which makes impossible the assessment of their status in environmentally impacted coastal areas. In marine biota, despite of the fact that concentrations have been reported in several organisms, information on the factors controlling the LSTCEs uptake or their potential to be biomagnified through the food web is mostly missing. It is therefore encouraged further research in order to have a better assessment on the impact of the uses of these metals on the concentrations of LSTCEs in such sensitive coastal zones, including their concentrations, bioavailability, thresholds for non-lethal endpoints and their capability of biomagnification.

The influence of natural vs anthropogenic factors on trace metal(loid) levels in the Mussel Watch programme: Two decades of monitoring in the Spanish Mediterranean sea

“…the Prestige oil spill, Santos-Echeandia et al, 2005;Soriano et al, 2006). Besides, it would be interesting to establish background values for the contaminants of emerging concern (Cobelo-García et al, 2015;Romero-Freire et al, 2019) in order to evaluate whetherthese substances are spreading through the environment and increasing their concentrations in the different marine matrices (Neira et al, 2015;Almécija et al, 2016).…”

Analysis of Seventeen Certified Water Reference Materials for Trace and Technology‐Critical Elements

“…Aside from the REE, the so‐called technology‐critical elements (TCEs), which include Te, Ge, Ga, In, Nb, Ta, platinum‐group elements and the REE, gain more and more attention and will eventually find their way into the aquatic environment (Nuss and Blengini 2018, Romero‐Freire et al . 2019). A potential new contamination source of Ga and In are offshore wind farms, as Ga and In are used in corrosion protection systems (Kirchgeorg et al .…”

Quantification of Re and four other trace elements (Ag, Cd, Pd, Zn) in certified reference materials and natural waters

“…[11][12][13][14] Regardless of the approaches applied to constrain or eliminate spectral interferences, quality controls remain critical to accurate quantication of trace and ultra-trace elements in natural matrices. However, appropriate certied reference materials (CRMs) are commonly not certied for all trace and ultra-trace elements or are not available at all to cover the full diversity of environmental matrices; 11,15,16 only the concentrations of a few trace elements are certied for most CRMs. Several collaborative initiatives have aimed to provide compilation or indicative values of non-certied elements in common CRMs, especially those issued by the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC), e.g., the river water series collected from the Ottawa River (SLRS-5 and SLRS-6) and drinking water AQUA-1.…”

“…[17][18][19] However, there are many elements in these freshwater CRMs that could not be covered by these initiatives. Furthermore, except GEOTRACES's intercalibration exercises for a few trace metals (e.g., Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Co, Ni), stable isotopes ( 13 C, 15 N, Pb and Nd isotopes) and radionuclides ( 210 Pb and 238 Th), 20 there have been very limited inter-calibration exercises performed for seawater because of its complex sample matrix.…”