Environmental contaminants: Sources and fate by innovative multi-proxy isotope approaches

环境污染物：创新多代理同位素方法的来源和归宿

• 批准号: RGPIN-2021-03896
• 负责人: Widory, David
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: Université du Québec à Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=755119
• 关键词: Environmental; contaminants; Sources; fate; innovative

Contaminants are today a major societal issue for most countries, their presence often exceeding national and international quality guidelines. As a result, interest in monitoring networks of environmental quality have grown substantially in the past several years. Still, there is a knowledge gap about the eventual transformation of these contaminants in the environment, arising the need to develop and implement innovative approaches to better constrain the sources and processes controlling their budgets, with the ultimate objective of designing specifically targeted management plans where needed. In this Discovery Grant research program, I am proposing to investigate the cycle of contaminants in the air/-soil/-water continuum through the lens of innovative multi-proxy multi-isotope approaches. I am capitalising on the unique analytical capacities acquired by my research group within the last few years as well as on a privileged access to the facilities of the Geotop research center (a geoscience interuniversity research center aiming at studying Earth dynamics) at UQAM. I will focus throughout the 5 years of this research program on exploring the fate of contaminants once released in the environment, focusing on 2 short-term objectives related to two distinct classes of carbon contaminants: 1) Are photooxidation and ozonation contributing to the presence of aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in the environment? AMPA, an agricultural and urban degradation byproduct, has been classified as persistent in soils and recent studies have demonstrated its adverse impact on environmental and health qualities. I will particularly focus on the mechanisms responsible for the formation of AMPA by the transformation of either glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) or of phosphonates present in our sewage effluents. 2) Fingerprinting the contribution of atmospheric Dissolved Black Carbon (DBC), in search of the potential "missing link" in the global carbon budget. Although rivers have been thought to be the main sources of DBC in the oceans, a recent study contradicted this conclusion. Here I will explore the significance of atmospheric deposition as the missing source of DBC. The findings would postulate that direct deposition of DBC through this pathway is also plausible for the cryospheric regions where, so far, black carbon (BC) aerosols solubilized over time are believed to be the only source of DBC prevalent in the region. This research program is highly relevant in the current context of an increasing abundance of environmental contaminants worldwide and will advance our understanding of their sources and fates. Finally, it will offer a stimulating environment for the numerous gender-balanced highly qualified personnel (HQP) who will be involved in the program (4 BSc, 3 MSc and 2 PhD), combining training on state-of-the-art analytical instrumentations with the broad understanding of complex and strategic environmental issues.

今天，对大多数国家来说，污染物是一个重大的社会问题，它们的存在往往超过国家和国际质量标准。因此，在过去的几年里，人们对环境质量监测网络的兴趣大幅增长。尽管如此，关于这些污染物在环境中的最终转化仍然存在知识缺口，因此需要开发和实施创新的方法，以更好地约束控制其预算的来源和过程，最终目标是在需要时设计有针对性的管理计划。在这项探索基金研究计划中，我提议通过创新的多代理多同位素方法来研究空气/土壤/水连续体中污染物的循环。我正在利用我的研究小组在过去几年中获得的独特分析能力，以及利用UQAM的Geotop研究中心(旨在研究地球动力学的地球科学跨大学研究中心)的设施的特权。在整个5年的研究计划中，我将专注于探索污染物一旦释放到环境中的命运，重点放在与两种不同类别的碳污染物相关的两个短期目标上：1)光氧化和臭氧氧化是否会导致环境中存在氨基甲基膦酸(AMPA)？氨基甲基膦酸(AMPA)是一种农业和城市降解副产品，已被归类为在土壤中的持久性，最近的研究表明，它对环境和健康质量有不利影响。我会特别集中讨论以草甘膦为基础的除草剂(GBH)或污水流出物中的磷酸盐转化而形成AMPA的机制。2)对大气溶解黑碳(DBC)的贡献进行指纹分析，以寻找全球碳收支中潜在的“缺失环节”。尽管河流一直被认为是海洋中DBC的主要来源，但最近的一项研究与这一结论相矛盾。在这里，我将探讨大气沉积作为DBC失踪来源的意义。这些发现将假设，通过这一途径直接沉积DBC对于冰冻圈地区也是可行的，到目前为止，在那里，随着时间的推移溶解的黑碳(BC)气溶胶被认为是该地区普遍存在的DBC的唯一来源。这项研究计划在当前世界范围内环境污染物日益丰富的背景下具有高度的相关性，并将促进我们对其来源和命运的理解。最后，它将为众多性别平衡的高素质人员(HQP)提供一个激励的环境，他们将参与该项目(4名理科学士、3名理学硕士和2名博士)，将最先进的分析仪器培训与对复杂和战略性环境问题的广泛理解相结合。