pollution 4 Flashcards
nanomaterials, chemical cocktails and the future (13 cards)
1
Q
nanoparticles
A
- particle less than 100 nanometres in one dimension
- engineered nanomaterials e.g. for large surface area, antibacterial properties electrical properties, magnetic properties
2
Q
Engineered NM environmental impacts
A
- use and disposal of NMs then enter environment
- enhanced properties cause them to interact with environment causing abiotic reactions: can produce chemicals more toxic than nanomaterials itself
- can also impact on an ecosystem scale due to chemical effects, contaminant interactions with other compounds and bioaccumulation (largely unknown)
3
Q
Toxicity of silver nanoparticles
A
- many consumer products uses silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)
- comes through home and industries
- impact of AgNPs on pacu (P. mesopotamicus )
- even at low exposure nanoparticles in brain, liver and gills
- this increased antioxidant stress and evidence of DNA damage even at low concentrations
4
Q
Ag NP on community structure
A
- fungi and bacteria help decompose leaf litter
- silver nanoparticles and silver nitrate impacted community structure of bacteria in both short term (5 days) and long term exposure
- fungi took longer to response to exposure (only showed impact after 25 days)
- in bacteria the community becomes more tolerant and rapidly response to exposure
- fungi cant response as well, changes are more physiological, taxa lost
- impact on ecosystem function: significant reduction in leaf mass consumed by bacteria and fungi biomass and production is reduced – impacts on community and ecosystem scale
5
Q
Pollutant cocktail
A
- pollutants interact with each other and the ecosystem
- additive effect: add together and combined effect is the effect of individual exposures added
- synergistic effect: combined effect of two contaminants is greater than additive effect
- antagonistic effect: combined effect of contaminants is lower than additive effect
6
Q
Pollutant cocktails: pharmaceuticals
A
- Vasquez et al 2014
- few studies on pollutant cocktails
- most studies on algae, zoo plankton, daphnia etc not on larger organism
7
Q
Impact of diphenhydramine and nanoplastics on zebrafish
A
- Barreto et al 2023
- combined exposure greater than induvial exposures (synergistic)
- reduction in survivorship, increase in defects in combined exposure
8
Q
Pesticide cocktail impacts on tadpole of toad
A
- pesticides are commonly used multiple at a time
- looked at mortality, genotoxicity, cardiotoxicity
- examined combined effect of pesticide cocktails and saline stress
- interactive effect: mortality greater when pesticide mixture crossed with NaCl
9
Q
Pollutant cocktail interaction with plastics
A
- 4 risks factors of plastics: shape, polymer type, size of particle and environmental chemistry
- method of categorising environmental risk of plastic pollution types
- however requires large number of information how these variables interact with environmental chemistry/other additives to understand risk
10
Q
future research on ECs
A
- characterise the effect of EC mixtures at environmentally relevant concentrations
- understand the impact of ECs on other environment stresses, in particular future climate stressors due to climate change. How this influences, breakdown mobility and transport
- Identify influence on aquatic ecosystem functioning and non-target organisms
- determine interactions of ECs with other pollutants
11
Q
future monitoring of ECs
A
- regular monitoring of ECs required as national assessment of aquatic health
- increase data collection from the Global South to understand emerging contaminants at a global scale
- cost-effective, reliable. Standardised methods for monitoring ECs to increase monitoring capacity
12
Q
The future interventions
A
- investment in treatment methodologies and technologies for EC removal of wastewaters
- regulation of pharmaceutical and other EC use and disposal
- creation of open reference data bases – similar to pesticides
13
Q
A
