About this Research Topic
Environmental pollution is amongst the most pressing global issues today. Aquatic ecosystems are of special concern because they are often final sinks for contaminants, with both important ecological and economic functions. Due to their persistence, non-degradability, toxicity, bioaccumulation, and magnification in the food chain, trace elements are highly problematic.
Trace elements in aquatic systems may originate from natural processes such as slow leaching from soil and rock to water, and from anthropogenic sources such as mining, sewage, smelters, tanneries, the textile and chemical industry, agriculture, and transport. These human-related emissions usually lead to elevated concentrations of trace elements that pose a threat to aquatic organisms, reduce the self-cleaning capacity of water bodies, and violate ecosystem sustainability. Within aquatic bodies, trace elements shift between particulate, dissolved, and biological phases and easily undergo absorption, precipitation, speciation, and bioaccumulation in living organisms. This biogeochemical cycle is controlled by a set of chemical, physical and biological factors. Understanding this cycle is necessary to evaluate the risks of toxic effects on organisms when trace elements enter the food chain.
As primary producers that account for the most biomass within aquatic ecosystems, vascular aquatic plants are often the first organisms affected by pollutants. Consequently, they introduce toxic substances into the food chain. Marohydrophytes can survive in polluted habitats and can respond in various ways, such as restricting transport to the shoot and regulating element uptake in the roots. Some aquatic plants are therefore useful phytoremediation agents. While those species that exhibit a proportional relationship between the tissues and the environmental element concentration have important applications in biomonitoring.
Extensive research on the toxic effects of, as well as the factors controlling trace element uptake and accumulation in aquatic plants, has been carried out in recent years. However, many aspects remain understudied or inconclusively described; these include e.g. differences in element accumulation between species and populations; the synergistic and antagonistic relations between the factors controlling uptake; the metabolism and cycling of trace elements, and the best methods for bioindication and remediation applications. Further comprehensive and detailed research is therefore required.
This Research Topic aims at providing a platform for recent research results and opinions on the interactions between trace elements and aquatic plants. Original Research and Review articles on aquatic plants that address the following, but are not limited to, subtopics, are welcomed:
• Uptake and accumulation of trace elements;
• Trace element sorption mechanisms;
• Factors influencing the process kinetics, equilibrium, and mutual relations between trace elements accumulated in aquatic plants and their habitat;
• Distribution of elements in aquatic plant tissues and communities;
• Seasonal cycling of trace elements;
• Influence of natural versus anthropogenic trace elements;
• Performance of plants in polluted waters and aquatic habitats;
• Toxic and beneficiary effects of trace elements;
• The application of aquatic plants in biomonitoring, bioindication, and phytoremediation.
We encourage interdisciplinary submissions uniting botany, physiology, and biochemistry.
Trace elements in aquatic systems may originate from natural processes such as slow leaching from soil and rock to water, and from anthropogenic sources such as mining, sewage, smelters, tanneries, the textile and chemical industry, agriculture, and transport. These human-related emissions usually lead to elevated concentrations of trace elements that pose a threat to aquatic organisms, reduce the self-cleaning capacity of water bodies, and violate ecosystem sustainability. Within aquatic bodies, trace elements shift between particulate, dissolved, and biological phases and easily undergo absorption, precipitation, speciation, and bioaccumulation in living organisms. This biogeochemical cycle is controlled by a set of chemical, physical and biological factors. Understanding this cycle is necessary to evaluate the risks of toxic effects on organisms when trace elements enter the food chain.
As primary producers that account for the most biomass within aquatic ecosystems, vascular aquatic plants are often the first organisms affected by pollutants. Consequently, they introduce toxic substances into the food chain. Marohydrophytes can survive in polluted habitats and can respond in various ways, such as restricting transport to the shoot and regulating element uptake in the roots. Some aquatic plants are therefore useful phytoremediation agents. While those species that exhibit a proportional relationship between the tissues and the environmental element concentration have important applications in biomonitoring.
Extensive research on the toxic effects of, as well as the factors controlling trace element uptake and accumulation in aquatic plants, has been carried out in recent years. However, many aspects remain understudied or inconclusively described; these include e.g. differences in element accumulation between species and populations; the synergistic and antagonistic relations between the factors controlling uptake; the metabolism and cycling of trace elements, and the best methods for bioindication and remediation applications. Further comprehensive and detailed research is therefore required.
This Research Topic aims at providing a platform for recent research results and opinions on the interactions between trace elements and aquatic plants. Original Research and Review articles on aquatic plants that address the following, but are not limited to, subtopics, are welcomed:
• Uptake and accumulation of trace elements;
• Trace element sorption mechanisms;
• Factors influencing the process kinetics, equilibrium, and mutual relations between trace elements accumulated in aquatic plants and their habitat;
• Distribution of elements in aquatic plant tissues and communities;
• Seasonal cycling of trace elements;
• Influence of natural versus anthropogenic trace elements;
• Performance of plants in polluted waters and aquatic habitats;
• Toxic and beneficiary effects of trace elements;
• The application of aquatic plants in biomonitoring, bioindication, and phytoremediation.
We encourage interdisciplinary submissions uniting botany, physiology, and biochemistry.
Keywords: pollution, trace elements, biomonitoring, ecology, abiotic stress
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.
