Suchergebnisse

For decades, the explosive RDX (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine) has been used for military and industrial applications. Residues of RDX pollute soils in large areas globally and the persistence and high soil mobility of these residues can lead to leaching into groundwater. Dendroremediation, i.e. the long-term use of trees to clean up polluted soils, is gaining acceptance as a green and sustainable strategy. Although the coniferous tree species Norway spruce and Scots pine cover large areas of military land in Central Europe, the potential of any coniferous tree for dendroremediation of RDX is still unknown. In this study, uptake experiments with a 14C-labelled RDX solution (30 mg L−1) revealed that RDX was predominantly retained in the roots of 6-year-old coniferous trees. Only 23 % (pine) to 34 % (spruce) of RDX equivalents (RDXeq) taken up by the roots were translocated to aboveground tree compartments. This finding contrasts with the high aerial accumulation of RDXeq (up to 95 %) in the mass balances of all other plant species. Belowground retention of RDXeq is relatively stable in fine root fractions, since water leaching from tissue homogenates was less than 5 %. However, remobilisation from milled coarse roots and tree stubs reached up to 53 %. Leaching from homogenised aerial tree material was found to reach 64 % for needles, 58 % for stems and twigs and 40 % for spring sprouts. Leaching of RDX by precipitation increases the risk for undesired re-entry into the soil. However, it also opens the opportunity for microbial mineralisation in the litter layer or in the rhizosphere of coniferous forests and offers a chance for repeated uptake of RDX by the tree roots.

Zur Regulierung von Schadnagerpopulationen werden im Biozidbereich in Deutschland in den meisten Fällen Fraßköder mit blutgerinnungshemmenden (antikoagulanten) Wirkstoffen eingesetzt. Antikoagulante Rodentizide wirken bei allen warmblütigen Tieren, also auch bei Organismen, die nicht bekämpft werden sollen oder dürfen. Zudem sind die meisten dieser Wirkstoffe persistent, bioakkumulierend und toxisch. Um Nichtzielorganismen zu schützen und Einträge in die Umwelt zu minimieren, wurden bei der Biozid-Zulassung von antikoagulanten Rodentiziden verbindliche Risikominderungsmaßnahmen festgeschrieben. Die Effektivität dieser Maßnahmen ist jedoch kaum empirisch untersucht, so dass Wissensdefizite auch im Hinblick auf eine mögliche Optimierung bzw. Weiterentwicklung von Risikominderungsmaßnahmen bestehen. Im Rahmen dieses Forschungs- und Entwicklungsvorhabens wurden daher drei zentrale Aspekte mit Bezug auf den Schutz von Nichtzielorganismen näher betrachtet. Im ersten Teil wurde untersucht, wie sich die Ausbringung antikoagulanter Rodentizide in Köderstationen ausschließlich innerhalb von Gebäuden im Vergleich zum Einsatz in und um Gebäude auf das Auftreten blutgerinnungshemmender Wirkstoffe in freilebenden Nichtzielkleinsäugern auswirkt. Weiterhin wurden die Bewegungsmuster und Sterbeorte vergifteter Wanderratten auf Bauernhöfen dokumentiert, um daraus Rückschlüsse auf die mögliche Exposition von Beutegreifern ziehen zu können. Im zweiten Teil wurden Rückstände antikoagulanter Rodentizide in Rotfüchsen aus ländlichen und urbanen Räumen untersucht, um mögliche Unterschiede in der Exposition zu identifizieren. Außerdem wurde das Auftreten blutgerinnungshemmender Wirkstoffe in verschiedenen Singvögeln während Rattenbekämpfungen auf landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben analysiert. Im dritten Teil wurde versucht, die Ausbringung von Fraßködern in Köderstationen so zu gestalten, dass Nichtzielorganismen von der Köderannahme ausgeschlossen werden.

Contamination of soils with the explosive hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX, Research Department Explosive) as a result of military applications is a large-area problem globally. Since coniferous trees dominate the vegetation of large areas of military land in Central Europe, particularly in Germany, the long-term fate of 14C-RDX in the conifers Scots pine and Dwarf Alberta spruce was studied. Acetic acid was the most effective solvent for the removal of extractable RDX residues from homogenates of RDX-laden tree material (85%, 80–90% and 64–80% for roots, wood and needles, respectively). On average, only a fifth of RDX-derived 14C was bound in non-extractable residues (NER). Within the main cell wall compartments, lignin was the dominant binding site for NER (needles: 32–62%; roots: 38–42%). Hemicellulose (needles: 11–18%; roots: 6–11%) and cellulose (needles: 12–24%; roots: 1–2%) were less involved in binding and a considerable proportion of NER (needles: 15–24%; roots: 59–51%) was indigestible. After three-year incubation in rot chambers, mineralisation of tree-associated 14C-RDX to 14CO2 clearly dominated the mass balance in both tree species with 48–83%. 13–33% of 14C-RDX-derived radioactivity remained in an unleachable form and the remobilisation by water leaching was negligible (< 2%).

AbstractWildlife exposures to pest controlling substances have resulted in population declines of many predatory species during the past decades. Many pesticides were subsequently classified as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) and banned on national or global scales. However, despite their risks for non-target vertebrate wildlife, PBT substances such as anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) are still permitted for use in Europe and have shown to threaten raptors. Whereas risks of ARs are known, much less information is available on emerging agrochemicals such as currently used PPPs and medicinal products (MPs) in higher trophic level species. We expect that currently used PPPs are relatively mobile (vs. lipophilic) as a consequence of the PBT criteria and thus more likely to be present in aqueous matrices. We therefore analyzed blood of 204 raptor nestlings of three terrestrial (red kite, common buzzard, Montagu's harrier) and two aquatic species (white-tailed sea eagle, osprey) from Germany. In total, we detected ARs in 22.6% of the red kites and 8.6% of the buzzards, whereas no Montagu's harriers or aquatic species were exposed prior to sampling. ΣAR concentration tended to be higher in North Rhine-Westphalia (vs. North-Eastern Germany) where population density is higher and intense livestock farming more frequent. Among the 90 targeted and currently used PPPs, we detected six substances from which bromoxynil (14.2%) was most frequent. Especially Montagu's harrier (31%) and red kites (22.6%) were exposed and concentrations were higher in North Rhine-Westphalia as well. Among seven MPs, we detected ciprofloxacin (3.4%), which indicates that risk mitigation measures may be needed as resistance genes were already detected in wildlife from Germany. Taken together, our study demonstrates that raptors are exposed to various chemicals during an early life stage depending on their sampling location and underpins that red kites are at particular risk for multiple pesticide exposures in Germany.