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.

如今，污染物是大多数国家的主要社会问题，其存在通常超过国家和国际质量指南。结果，在过去几年中，对监测环境质量网络的兴趣已经大大增长。尽管如此，关于这些污染物在环境中最终转换的知识差距仍然存在，因此需要开发和实施创新的方法，以更好地控制控制其预算的来源和流程，并最终的目的是在需要时设计专门针对的管理计划。在该发现赠款研究计划中，我建议通过创新的多耐多种异位方法的镜头来研究空气/ - 土壤/水连续体中污染物的周期。我利用了我的研究小组在过去几年中获得的独特分析能力，以及对Geotop研究中心的特权访问（地球科学Interniversity Research Center旨在研究地球动力学）在UQAM的设施。我将在本研究计划的整个5年中重点介绍探索环境中释放的污染物的命运，重点关注与两种不同类别的碳污染物相关的短期目标：1）在环境中，光氧化和机构是有助于氨基甲基磷酸磷酸磷酸（AMPA）的存在吗？ AMPA是一种农业和城市退化的副产品，已被归类为土壤中的持续性，最近的研究表明，其对环境和健康品质的不利影响。我将特别关注通过在我们的污水效应中转化的基于糖酸酯的除草剂（GBH）或磷酸盐的机制。 2）在全球碳预算中寻找潜在的“缺失链接”的大气溶解黑碳（DBC）的贡献。尽管河流被认为是海洋中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缺失来源的重要性。这些发现将假设DBC通过该途径的直接沉积对于冰冻圈区域也是合理的，到目前为止，随着时间的流逝，黑碳（BC）气溶胶被认为是该地区唯一普遍存在的DBC的来源。在当前的环境中，该研究计划与全球越来越丰富的环境污染物相关，并将促进我们对他们的资源和命运的理解。最后，它将为将参与该计划的众多性别平衡的高度合格的人（HQP）提供一个刺激的环境（4 BSC，3 MSC和2博士学位），将有关最先进的分析仪器的培训与对复杂和战略环境问题的广泛理解相结合。