About this Research Topic
Rare Earth Elements (REE) are crucial to a wide range of modern technologies. Given the global demand for green and sustainable products in energy, military, and manufacturing industries, the demand for REE is projected to continue to increase. They are therefore considered as ‘strategic’ substances and as a consequence, ‘potential’ emerging pollutants. A major finding is that the human uses of REE could interfere with their natural biogeochemical cycling. Whereas their origin and behavior in the Earth’s mantle and crust have been quite well-characterized, many uncertainties in our current understanding are related to the lack of information on the REE anthropogenic sources (e.g. mining, recycling wastes, gasoil, oil sands, etc.) and transfer between the various environmental compartments.
At present, REE were still not considered as contaminants or potentially toxic. However, with their increasing medical and high technological uses, disruption of biogeochemical cycles by some REE are already apparent, notably in aquatic and terrestrial environments. In such context, several scientific questions arise that can be tackled mainly concerning: (i) the identification of REE sources (anthropogenic vs. natural) and their consequence on the resulting REE speciation, bioavailability and toxicity; (ii) the processes that control their mobility and environmental transport notably in the perspective of their high affinity for organic and inorganic colloids and particles and (iii) their impact on the quality and properties of natural resources (water, soil, biota, ecosystems) in coherence with the global climate changes.
We are interested in Original Research, Review, and Perspective articles that directly address the challenges of the REE environmental dissemination from natural and anthropogenic sources. This Research Topic is multidisciplinary covering fundamental processes that control REE environmental speciation, mobility, transport and impacts. It also includes advances in the mechanisms/source tracing using for example isotope-fingerprinting, advances in analytical REE detection, speciation and quantification etc. Thermodynamic and transport modelling is also encouraged. We welcome case studies that extrapolate results to fundamental knowledge. This Research Topic may include, but is not limited to, the following topics:
• Diagnosis of the environmental REE contamination in aquatic and terrestrial environments;
• Speciation of geogenic and anthropogenic REE;
• Analytical methodologies for REE measurements in biological, organic and mineral complex matrices;
• REE transport from their sources to soil, surface-, ground-waters, and sediments;
• Modelling tools to predict REE speciation and transfer/transport in environment;
• Impact of REE on natural resources including water, soil, sediment, biota and ecosystem;
• REE bioavailability, toxicokinetics, toxicodynamics and ecotoxicological effects on living organisms; and
• Remediation of REE contaminated areas.
At present, REE were still not considered as contaminants or potentially toxic. However, with their increasing medical and high technological uses, disruption of biogeochemical cycles by some REE are already apparent, notably in aquatic and terrestrial environments. In such context, several scientific questions arise that can be tackled mainly concerning: (i) the identification of REE sources (anthropogenic vs. natural) and their consequence on the resulting REE speciation, bioavailability and toxicity; (ii) the processes that control their mobility and environmental transport notably in the perspective of their high affinity for organic and inorganic colloids and particles and (iii) their impact on the quality and properties of natural resources (water, soil, biota, ecosystems) in coherence with the global climate changes.
We are interested in Original Research, Review, and Perspective articles that directly address the challenges of the REE environmental dissemination from natural and anthropogenic sources. This Research Topic is multidisciplinary covering fundamental processes that control REE environmental speciation, mobility, transport and impacts. It also includes advances in the mechanisms/source tracing using for example isotope-fingerprinting, advances in analytical REE detection, speciation and quantification etc. Thermodynamic and transport modelling is also encouraged. We welcome case studies that extrapolate results to fundamental knowledge. This Research Topic may include, but is not limited to, the following topics:
• Diagnosis of the environmental REE contamination in aquatic and terrestrial environments;
• Speciation of geogenic and anthropogenic REE;
• Analytical methodologies for REE measurements in biological, organic and mineral complex matrices;
• REE transport from their sources to soil, surface-, ground-waters, and sediments;
• Modelling tools to predict REE speciation and transfer/transport in environment;
• Impact of REE on natural resources including water, soil, sediment, biota and ecosystem;
• REE bioavailability, toxicokinetics, toxicodynamics and ecotoxicological effects on living organisms; and
• Remediation of REE contaminated areas.
Keywords: rare earth elements, emerging pollutants, speciation, transport, alteration of resources, quality, remediation
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
