Toward improved use of aboveground plant material to monitor belowground contaminants and their movement in urban environments
Abstract
In urban environments, addressing public health issues associated with organic and inorganic carcinogens is limited by our ability to identify belowground chemical contamination in a spatially comprehensive and cost-efficient way. Current monitoring is generally limited to sampling from wells which are sparse and not well-distributed, especially in urban areas. Because many cities have complex highly-altered hydrologic conditions, relying on these data to understand contaminant movement is insufficient. Further, volatile contaminants such as TCE and 1,4-dioxane are particularly problematic because concentrations of concern can be low enough to exceed limitations of current monitoring techniques. While using plant tissue to screen for belowground contaminants has been evolving as a robust alternative to relying solely on groundwater sampling, this technique is not trivial because (1) most laboratories are not prepared to work with plant tissue - and those that are have found that contaminants extracted from plant tissue is often below detection limits and (2) the extent to which urban plants use water from various sources is generally not well understood. Interestingly, previous studies have shown higher concentrations of heavy metals in resource-accumulating insect-induced plant galls than in other plant tissues. We build on this research by working with analytical chemistry laboratories to zero-in on a robust methodology for detecting organic and inorganic contaminants in galls and other plant tissues. Here we present that preliminary pilot research. We also present preliminary water stable isotope-derived source waters for urban plants using a simple mixing model. We highlight how understanding source waters for urban plants positions us to link carcinogenic contaminants detected in aboveground plant tissue to belowground sources of contamination.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020AGUFMH078...04P
- Keywords:
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- 1829 Groundwater hydrology;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1878 Water/energy interactions;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring;
- HYDROLOGY