Biomonitoring of polyaromatic hydrocarbon accumulation in rural gardens using lettuce plants
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SOILS, SEC 1 • SOIL ORGANIC MATTER DYNAMICS AND NUTRIENT CYCLING • RESEARCH ARTICLE
Biomonitoring of polyaromatic hydrocarbon accumulation in rural gardens using lettuce plants Nora Kováts 1 & Katalin Hubai 1 & Tsend-Ayush Sainnokhoi 1,2 & Gábor Teke 3 Received: 25 June 2020 / Accepted: 6 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Purpose Air pollution in settlements is one of the most important factors affecting human health. While urban gardening and the consumption of home-grown vegetables have become more and more popular, several studies establish the risk of consuming vegetables exposed to toxic air pollutants, especially polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). However, these studies mostly concern the risk in larger cities or in industrial areas while much less information is available in rural environments. Methods In our study, small settlements were selected for a pot accumulation study. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) plants were exposed for a 2-month period; PAH concentrations were determined both from the vegetable samples and pot soils. Results In the lettuce samples, the concentration of total PAHs was in the range of 9.1 (Litér) and 185 μg/kg dry wt (Hajmáskér), in the soil samples in the range of 31.6 (Litér) and 595.1 μg/kg wt (Hárskút). Four ring PAHs showed the highest tendency to accumulate in the majority of soil samples. Conclusion PAH concentrations in some of the sampled villages were comparable to results reported from relatively polluted regions in the world. Source appointment revealed that biomass burning and fossil fuel usage were the major sources of PAHs in rural environment; in addition, the study highlighted how important it could be to analyze individual pollution sources. Keywords Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons . Kitchen gardens . Lactuca sativa . Bioaccumulation . Soil
1 Introduction Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in settlements are mainly derived from incomplete combustion in motor vehicles; another major source is domestic heating (Szabó Nagy and Szabó 2017). A wide range of PAHs has proven highly carcinogenic or mutagenic: for example, the so-called CarPAHs (Srogi 2007), or the more extended list of 16 priority
Responsible editor: Xilong Wang * Nora Kováts [email protected] 1
Centre of Natural Sciences, University of Pannonia, Egyetem str. 10, Veszprém 8200, Hungary
2
School of Veterinary Medicine, Mongolian University of Life Sciences, Khan-Uul district, Zaisan, Ulaanbaatar 17042, Mongolia
3
ELGOSCAR-2000 Environmental Technology and Water Management Ltd., Balatonfuzfo 8184, Hungary
PAHs identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the 1970s. In the air, PAHs occur in the gaseous phase (mainly PAHs with higher vapor pressure) and bound to particles (mainly PAHs with lower vapor pressure). Plants are exposed to both phases. Moreover, atmospheric PAHs are easily transported to the soil, providing an additional exposure route for plants. In general, possible uptake mechanisms can be summarized as follows: gas exchange; particle deposition (from
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