Corbicula fluminea: A sentinel species for urban Rare Earth Element origin

Clément Pereto; Alexandra Coynel; Antoine Lerat-Hardy; Pierre-Yves Gourves; Jörg Schäfer; Magalie Baudrimont

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138552

Corbicula fluminea: A sentinel species for urban Rare Earth Element origin

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Aug 25:732:138552. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138552. Epub 2020 May 5.

Authors

Clément Pereto¹, Alexandra Coynel², Antoine Lerat-Hardy³, Pierre-Yves Gourves⁴, Jörg Schäfer⁵, Magalie Baudrimont⁶

Affiliations

¹ Université de Bordeaux, - UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire Bât NB18 - CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. Electronic address: clement.pereto@gmail.com.
² Université de Bordeaux, - UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire Bât NB18 - CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. Electronic address: alexandra.coynel@u-bordeaux.fr.
³ Université de Bordeaux, - UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire Bât NB18 - CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. Electronic address: antoine.lerat@u-bordeaux.fr.
⁴ Université de Bordeaux, - UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire Bât NB18 - CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. Electronic address: pierre-yves.gourves@u-bordeaux.fr.
⁵ Université de Bordeaux, - UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire Bât NB18 - CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. Electronic address: jorg.schafer@u-bordeaux.fr.
⁶ Université de Bordeaux, - UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire Bât NB18 - CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France. Electronic address: magalie.baudrimont@u-bordeaux.fr.

PMID: 32422480
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138552

Abstract

The increase in the global population, coupled with growing consumption of Rare Earth Elements (REEs), has led to increasing transfer of these emerging contaminants into the environment, particularly through the effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The objectives of this study were to determine the geochemical quality of a French river subject to strong urban pressure (the Jalle River in the Bordeaux area) and to examine the bioavailability of natural and anthropogenic REEs in a model species of freshwater bivalve, the Asian clam Corbicula fluminea. To this end, two fractions (dissolved and total) of the water from the Jalle River were sampled and the bivalves were exposed by in situ caging during a three-month monitoring period. The REE patterns obtained showed the presence of Gadolinium (Gd) anomalies in the dissolved and total fractions as well as in Corbicula fluminea. The apparent bioavailability of natural REEs was in the following order for the dissolved fraction: Medium REEs (MREEs) > Light REEs (LREEs) > Heavy REEs (HREEs) and for the particulate fraction: MREEs > LREEs = HREEs. These results highlight the importance of the particulate fraction in the study of the bioavailability of REEs in bivalves. An increase of anthropogenic Gd (Gd_anth) was observed in the dissolved fraction between the upstream site (3.4 ng.L^-1) and the WWTP Downstream site (48.4 ng.L^-1). The Gd anomaly observed in the water was also observed in Corbicula fluminea with a significant increase in the bioaccumulation of Gd_anth, from 1.5 ± 1 ng.g_DW^-1 upstream to 4.1 ± 0.7 ng.g_DW^-1 downstream of the WWTP effluents, thus confirming the enhanced bioavailability of medical-origin Gd to freshwater bivalves. This study strongly suggests that Corbicula fluminea can be used as a sentinel species in the monitoring of Gd contamination of medical origin. It would thus appear important to consider the potential entry of this contaminant into the human food chain via other, commercially exploited bivalve species.

Keywords: Asian clam; Bioavailability; Bivalves; Gadolinium anomaly; REEs; Urban river.

MeSH terms

Animals
Corbicula*
Environmental Monitoring
Metals, Rare Earth
Sentinel Species
Water Pollutants, Chemical

Substances

Metals, Rare Earth
Water Pollutants, Chemical