Accumulation of heavy metals and antioxidant responses in Pinus sylvestris L. needles in polluted and non-polluted sites

Ecotoxicology, Mar 2016

The purpose of this study was to determine the concentrations of heavy metals (cadmium, iron, manganese, lead and zinc) in current-year, 1-year old and 2-year old needles of Pinus sylvestris L. Trees were from three heavily polluted (immediate vicinity of zinc smelter, iron smelter and power plant) and three relatively clean sites (nature reserve, ecologically clean site and unprotected natural forest community) in southern Poland. Analysis also concerned the antioxidant response and contents of protein, proline, total glutathione, non-protein thiols and activity of guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) in the needles. Generally, in pine needles from the polluted sites, the concentrations of the metals were higher and increased with the age of needles, and in most cases, antioxidant responses also were elevated. The highest levels of Cd, Pb and Zn were found in 2-year old pine needles collected near the polluted zinc smelter (respectively: 6.15, 256.49, 393.5 mg kg−1), Fe in 2-year old pine needles in the vicinity of the iron smelter (206.82 mg kg−1) and Mn in 2-year old needles at the ecologically clean site (180.32 mg kg−1). Positive correlations were found between Fe, Mn and Pb and the content of proteins and NPTs, between Cd and non-protein –SH groups, and between Zn and proline levels. The activity of GPX increased under the influence of Mn, while glutathione levels tended to decrease as Mn levels rose. The data obtained show that the levels of protein and non-protein –SH groups may be useful in biological monitoring, and that these ecophysiological parameters seem to be good evidence of elevated oxidative stress caused by heavy metals.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10646-016-1654-6.pdf

Accumulation of heavy metals and antioxidant responses in Pinus sylvestris L. needles in polluted and non-polluted sites

Ecotoxicology Accumulation of heavy metals and antioxidant responses in Pinus sylvestris L. needles in polluted and non-polluted sites Marta Kandziora-Ciupa 0 Ryszard Ciepał 0 Aleksandra Nadgo´ rska-Socha 0 Gabriela Barczyk 0 0 Department of Ecology, University of Silesia , Bankowa 9, 40-007 Katowice , Poland The purpose of this study was to determine the concentrations of heavy metals (cadmium, iron, manganese, lead and zinc) in current-year, 1-year old and 2-year old needles of Pinus sylvestris L. Trees were from three heavily polluted (immediate vicinity of zinc smelter, iron smelter and power plant) and three relatively clean sites (nature reserve, ecologically clean site and unprotected natural forest community) in southern Poland. Analysis also concerned the antioxidant response and contents of protein, proline, total glutathione, non-protein thiols and activity of guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) in the needles. Generally, in pine needles from the polluted sites, the concentrations of the metals were higher and increased with the age of needles, and in most cases, antioxidant responses also were elevated. The highest levels of Cd, Pb and Zn were found in 2-year old pine needles collected near the polluted zinc smelter (respectively: 6.15, 256.49, 393.5 mg kg-1), Fe in 2-year old pine needles in the vicinity of the iron smelter (206.82 mg kg-1) and Mn in 2-year old needles at the ecologically clean site (180.32 mg kg-1). Positive correlations were found between Fe, Mn and Pb and the content of proteins and NPTs, between Cd and non-protein -SH groups, and between Zn and proline levels. The activity of GPX increased under the influence of Mn, while glutathione levels tended to decrease as Mn levels rose. The data obtained show that the levels of protein and non-protein - SH groups may be useful in biological monitoring, and that Abbreviations NPTs Non-protein thiols GSHt Glutathione total GPX Guaiacol peroxidase these ecophysiological parameters seem to be good evidence of elevated oxidative stress caused by heavy metals. Antioxidant response Heavy metal Pinus Introduction Atmospheric pollution constitutes a major problem in urban environments (Al-Khlaifat and Al-Khashman 2007; Sawidis et al. 2011; Chen et al. 2016; Zhao et al. 2016) . Pollutants containing trace metals are released from many different anthropogenic sources such as industry, and the combustion of fossil fuels in vehicles and energy plants (Sawidis et al. 2011). Heavy metal contamination can be exceptionally high in the vicinity of smelting operations and near mine tailings, i.e. materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore (Probst et al. 2009; Bothe 2011; Nadgo´rska-Socha et al. 2013b) . The accumulation of those anthropogenic trace metals in plants has drawn considerable attention as a possible indicator of inorganic pollution of the environment, as plants respond directly to the state of the soil and air (Divan et al. 2009; Fowler et al. 2009; Serbula et al. 2013) . Environmental quality monitoring using biological material is commonly accepted as a reliable and affordable way of obtaining information on heavy metal contamination. The main advantage is the opportunity for long-term comparisons without the need for expensive equipment (Massa et al. 2010) . The higher trophic plants most often used for biomonitoring in industrial and urban areas are coniferous and deciduous trees (Rademacher 2001; Piczak et al. 2003; Serbula et al. 2013) . Their one great advantage is that they are long-lived, so that repeated investigations are possible over decades. They can thus be sampled systematically with standardized sampling and analytical techniques for comparative monitoring of the temporal distribution of trace elements. Trees are usually easier to identify than lower trophic plants and can be used as effective biomonitors to detect even low levels of anthropogenic pollutants. Although it can be difficult to distinguish between the amount of pollutants taken up from the soil to that deposited on the leaves, trees still reflect the cumulative effects of environmental pollution (Berlizov et al. 2007; Sawidis et al. 2011) . The Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), the main forestforming species in Europe, is sensitive to several industrial pollutants, including heavy metals (Micieta and Mur´ın 1998; Rautio et al. 1998; Nieminen et al. 2004; Chudzin´ska et al. 2014) . Pine needles, with their thick epicuticular wax layer, are most frequently used for biomonitoring of airborne pollution due to the possibility of both passive and active uptake by tissues from the atmosphere (Mingorance et al. 2007; Sun et al. 2009, 2010; Kuang et al. 2011; Serbula et al. 2013) . Heavy metal uptake and accumulation by plant tissues causes various morphological, physiological and biochemical responses (Doganlar and Atmaca 2011) . Some metal ions are likely to remain in the cytopl (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10646-016-1654-6.pdf

Marta Kandziora-Ciupa, Ryszard Ciepał, Aleksandra Nadgórska-Socha, Gabriela Barczyk. Accumulation of heavy metals and antioxidant responses in Pinus sylvestris L. needles in polluted and non-polluted sites, Ecotoxicology, 2016, pp. 970-981, Volume 25, Issue 5, DOI: 10.1007/s10646-016-1654-6