Lecture 14: Toxicology in the Artic Flashcards
______: metal chelation and solubilization (remove contaminants, particularly heavy metals, from soil or water by concentrating them in the plant’s tissues, which can then be harvested and disposed of)
phytoextraction
_____: convert volatiles to less toxic forms
phytovolatilization
_____: detoxification of organic substances
phytodegredation
_____: metal immobilization and toxicity reduction (reduce the mobility and bioavailability of contaminants in soil, primarily heavy metals, by stabilizing them in the soil or rhizosphere, preventing further dispersal)
phytostabilization
_____: root secretions degrade organic substances
phytostimulation
T/F: Cold temperatures slow down abiotic and biotic degradation processes
true!
+10°C = ~2x reaction speed
_____ regions receive less intense sunlight,
and very little UV radiation
Polar
______ are the main drivers of
photodegradation
UV wavelengths
T/F: because there’s not as much photodegredation in the Artic, Contaminants that don’t break down are free to accumulate in biota
true
T/F: Arctic species tend to have more lipids
true! need for mass for insulation from the cold
many contaminants are lipophilic!! meaning they’ll house a lot more of these compounds
what is the main difference between sun bears and polar bears?
sun bears: more lean
polar bears: more bulk
how many people inhabit the canadian arctic? 4 million square km of land!
150 000 only! super isolated region
are there roads and rail connections that connect the Arctic to the rest of canada?
no, super isolated
T/F: Most of Canada’s billion dollar remediation projects are in the Arctic
true
how is the Arctic so polluted? why do we need to have so many remediation projects in that area?
tons of mining, and people just leaving contaminants all over the place
in ______, Top USA and USSR scientists discover that the Earth is round
(or maybe long distance bombers were developed, nobody knows)
1952
Traditional attack plans required
refueling in Europe/Siberia, new bombers can fly directly across the Arctic!
because of the cold war, what did Canada and the US make in the Arctic?
Distant Early Warning Line (DEW)
what was the DEW?
63 radar stations in the Arctic Circle
460,000 tons of building materials,
160,000,000 L of fuel shipped to
Arctic
Created ports, airfields, developed
existing communities to support
operations
Operational in 1957
42 sites obsoleted in 1963 due to
development of intercontinental
missiles
Fully decommissioned by 1985
how did the DEW radar stations become an environmental catastrophe?
Unneeded equipment disposed in
the ocean
Garbage left outside to be
covered by ice
Toxic waste poured into sewers
Contaminant legacy of PCBs, metals, petroleum products
T/F: DEW line contamination is largely
limited to ~10 km radius around
each site
true
Contamination up to 20 - 80 ppm in
soils, 1000x background levels
how do the contaminants around the DEW line spread to other plants/humans around the region? if its supposed to be localized
Nutrients in sewage promotes plant growth, attracts animals that eat the plants
Hunting/trapping animals is a large part of Inuit diets (clams, beluga, seals, etc)
can measure lots of PCB presence in pregnant Inuit women
limited vegetation in the Arctic = limited ______
phytoremediation
what is phytoremediation?
plants can clean up contaminants through a variety of ways
how was the DEW line cleaned up?
Of the 42 DEW line sites in Canada:
21 were upgraded to be part of the North Warning System (and presumably tidied up!)
21 were cleaned up by the Federal government (1989 - 2014)
Heavily contaminated soil brought south
for incineration
Less contaminated waste buried in
capped landfills on site.
-“Resistant to melting permafrost”
25 years of monitoring ongoing
