Via Francigena F.A.Q © Associazione Europea delle Vie Francigene | C.F. 91029880340 – P.IVA 02654910344 Powered by ItinerAria Privacy | Cookie Policy  | Legal Notice  © Associazione Europea delle Vie Francigene | C.F Powered by ItinerAria EAVF General Assembly, Pavia (Italy)  |  20 October 2023 Volume 14 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1260431 This article is part of the Research TopicPlant-Based Solutions for Ecosystem Quality Assessment and Remediation StrategiesView all 7 articles Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental concern due to its toxicity (especially high in methylated form) and the long-range distribution of its gaseous elemental form (GEM) pose intrinsic difficulties for their management and heavy monitoring costs plant-based solutions may play a key role in the ecosystem quality assessment and support remediation strategies combining reliability and cost-effectiveness we adopted a biomonitoring approach by using tree rings of four different species collected in the proximity of the mining-metallurgical area of Abbadia San Salvatore a major former Hg mining district whose reclamation is currently in progress Our dendrochemical analysis was aimed at identifying the historical changes of local atmospheric Hg contamination and at singling out other potentially toxic elements (PTEs) associated with the past mining activity Collected cores dated back to early as 1940 and provided the temporal patterns of atmospheric Hg emission vs the produced liquid quantities so reconstructing the historical impact of the mining site on nearby terrestrial ecosystems and resident human population Current GEM contamination was found about twenty times lower than that of the fully operational mine periods thallium (Tl) and lead (Pb) appeared to be potentially associated with the mining activity thus suggesting new working assumptions for further dendrochemical analyses and for the inclusion of Pb in human biomonitoring surveys of the Mt The results prompt a more thorough assessment by tracking for a longer time span a critical site that is an ideal open-field lab to study the ecophysiology of different tree species in relation to environmental behavior of PTEs for better-assessing wildlife and human exposures Through analysis of tree rings from four different species we aimed to identify the temporal patterns of atmospheric Hg emission vs the produced quantities to reconstruct the historical impact of the mining site on nearby terrestrial ecosystems and resident population In a first attempt to single out possible tracers of local elemental contamination other potentially toxic elements (PTEs) that could be associated with the mining-metallurgical activities in Abbadia S.S GEM concentrations map of the mining site of Abbadia S.S. and the nearby urban area, recently produced by using passive samplers (McLagan et al., 2019), was taken in this study as the main reference for sampling design. Sampling sites (Figure 1) were selected considering GEM dispersal from the metallurgical plant, the hotspot of contamination in the area (McLagan et al., 2019) the selected sampling sites were at a distance of 340-500 m in zones where it was possible to locate trees of four species: maple (Acer pseudoplatanus) chestnut (Castanaea sativa) and linden (Tilia cordata) Figure 1 Sampling sites of tree cores in the area of the Mine of Abbadia San Salvatore (Google Earth) and superimposed representation of the distribution of time-weighted average concentrations of GEM as reported by McLagan et al., 2019 Tree cores were collected in October 2022 using a 400 mm long Haglöf increment borer Two cores from each tree were taken from the east and west sides of the trunk cleaning actions were put in place to avoid any potential contamination (e.g and the borer was washed with Milli-Q water and blown drying with canned air prior to use and after each sampling) each core was stored in a 600 mm long 10 mm diameter PVC pipe which was sealed with a rubber socket cap on each end samples were stored in a freezer at -20°C and later dried at room temperature for a week After cross-dating the cores with standard dendrochronological methods ring widths were measured with a dissecting Leica microscope; starting from the outside towards the center the cores were finally cut into 3-year segments for linden and into 5-year segments for the other species (3-year the innermost chestnut segment) and lyophilized in a LIO 5Pascal (t = 24 h P = 0,125 mbar) prior to analysis to achieve complete dryness Total concentrations of Hg and 13 other elements vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn) of each core segment were determined at the Core Facility - CFH of the University of Hohenheim by using an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS PerkinElmer) after mineralization with HNO3 and H2O2 in a microwave digestion unit (UltraCLAVEIII samples and rinse solution to prevent the memory effects of Hg rhodium ICP standard solution as internal standards together with certified reference materials (1547 “Peach Leaves” and 1573a “Tomato Leaves” from NIST USA and n° 62 “Olive Leaves” from BCR Results of each batch of 24 samples were accepted only if data obtained from the certified reference materials were within the uncertainty range of the certified values (intervals with 95% confidence) Analytical precision from 6 replicate of certified reference materials subjected to the same procedure as the wood samples Concentrations of elements were expressed as mg/kg on a dry weight basis Collected tree cores dated back to as early as the year 1942 for linden, 1960 for chestnut, and 1978 for pine and maple. In Table 1 the overall concentrations of Hg and the other trace elements determined in tree ring core segments were reported Cd and Co were very low in tree rings from Abbadia S.S. with median concentrations of 0.03 – 0.04 mg/kg or below the DL Tl concentrations were generally negligible except for linden and maple cores which showed concentrations up to 0.14-0.15 mg/kg Overall Hg concentrations in core segments of tree species were considerable as they varied from the DL (0.05 mg/kg) up to the maximum level of 3.37 mg/kg found in the linden tree core Table 1 Mercury and PTEs concentrations (median min-max; mg/kg) in tree rings from stands of four species (A n=27) collected from the urban area of Abbadia S.S Figure 2 Projections of concentration data from tree ring segments in the vector space defined by PCA Figure 3 Total Hg concentrations in core segments collected from the linden tree (3-years segments) and from chestnut and pine trees (5-years segments) compared with the trend of liquid Hg tons produced in the mining district of Mt. Amiata (years 1942-2022); Hg produced quantities (Segreto, 1991; Forconi, 2011) were averaged for the corresponding time intervals of the segments Keeping in mind the limitations of our pilot study we can speculate about the possibility to include Pb in the parameter list of the next human biomonitoring campaigns despite significant gaps in the knowledge of the ecophysiological mechanisms driving the PTEs cycling in trees and their transport and accumulation in woody tissues tree ring analysis is a promising tool to infer past and present impacts on environmental quality and to evaluate the resulting human exposure The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research The author(s) declare that financial support has been received from the University of Siena for the publication of this article The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher Historical smelting activities in Eastern Canada revealed by Pb concentrations and isotope ratios in tree rings of long-lived white cedars (Thuja occidentalis L.) Evaluation of historical atmospheric pollution in an industrial area by dendrochemical approaches doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.12.072 Spatiotemporal reconstruction of lead contamination using tree rings and organic soil layers and when of dendrochemistry: (paleo) environmental information from the chemical analysis of tree rings Ecological study of the mercury-bearing area of Monte Amiata Mortality of populations residing in geothermal areas of Tuscany during the period 2003-2012 400-year record of atmospheric mercury from tree-rings in Northwestern Canada Il cinabro sul Monte Amiata (Abbadia San Salvatore Google Scholar Tree rings record of long-term atmospheric hg pollution in the monte amiata mining district (Central Italy): lessons from the past for a better future Tree rings as historical archives of atmospheric mercury: A critical review Further investigations into the use of tree rings as archives of atmospheric mercury concentrations CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Internal tree cycling and atmospheric archiving of mercury: examination with concentration and stable isotope analyses Characterization and quantification of atmospheric mercury sources using passive air samplers Mihaljevič Lead isotopic and metallic pollution record in tree rings from the copperbelt mining-smelting area Air quality in post-mining towns: tracking potentially toxic elements using tree leaves Lichen transplants as indicators of gaseous elemental mercury concentrations Levels and determinants of urinary and blood metals in the geothermal area of Mt Investigation of spatial and historical variations of air pollution around an industrial region using trace and macro elements in tree components Mercury accumulation in leaves of different plant types - the significance of tissue age and specific leaf area Health effects among a cohort exposed to low-level arsenic in a geothermal area of Tuscany Influence of ore processing activity on Hg As and Sb contamination and fractionation in soils in a former mining site of Monte Amiata ore district (Italy) doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.02.051 exploitation and environmental impact of the Mt Amiata mercury ore district (Southern Tuscany Strategie internazionali e vincoli extraeconomici (Milano Google Scholar Distribution of thallium and accompanying metals in tree rings of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) from a smelter-affected area Thallium and potentially toxic elements distribution in pine needles tree rings and soils around a pyrite mine and indication for environmental pollution Application of tree rings [dendrochemistry] for detecting historical trends in air Hg concentrations across multiple scales Trace element transformations and partitioning during the roasting of pyrite ores in the sulfuric acid industry PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Mercury uptake by vegetation and impacts on global mercury cycling CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Loppi S and Monaci F (2023) Tree-rings analysis to reconstruct atmospheric mercury contamination at a historical mining site Received: 17 July 2023; Accepted: 27 September 2023;Published: 13 October 2023 Copyright © 2023 Baroni, Ancora, Franzaring, Loppi and Monaci. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Fabrizio Monaci, ZmFicml6aW8ubW9uYWNpQHVuaXNpLml0 Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Medievalists.net A new DNA study shows that 14th century plague outbreaks might have resulted from repeated introductions of Yersinia pestis to Europe would have contributed to the rapid spread of the Black Death and other epidemics throughout Europe The bacterium Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of bubonic and pulmonary plague in humans Plague is primarily a disease of wildlife and is maintained in reservoirs which nowadays are present on all continents with the exception of Australia and Western Europe represents one of the most significant events that marked the beginning of the second plague pandemic during the medieval period plague spread through whole Europe like wildfire leading to the decline of the European population by 30 % After this dramatic period and for more than 350 years Europe knew a series of recurrent devastating outbreaks of Y different studies tried to understand the origin of these outbreaks after a first introduction during the Black Death pestis were established in Western Europe – which explains these recurrent outbreaks “The other hypothesis suggest that the plague was repeatedly introduced to Western Europe from a reservoir located in Eastern Europe/Central Asia and spread via commercial trade routes and human movement” these two scenarios are investigated using five newly presented ancient genomes (aDNA) of Y pestis isolated from skeletons distributed in archaeological sites from South (Abbadia San Salvatore France) to North Europe (Bergen-op-Zoom in the Netherlands and Oslo The ancient genomes from Abbadia San Salvatore and Oslo are the first ancient DNA sequences reported from Italy and Norway Historical data investigation of contacts and bed testaments conducted by the authors revealed the high percentage of people killed by plague within four months from late June to early September 1348 in Abbadia San Salvatore Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis researcher Amine Namouchi and colleagues advance in their paper that these two additional point mutations were acquired through a large transmission chain in Italy rather than having been gained within a newly established local wildlife reservoir the authors found that it is most likely dated to 1348 archeological and radiocarbon dating data described in their paper While the origin of the Black Death remains unclear the authors advance a new hypothesis that relates the onset of the Black Death with the arrival of a considerable variety of fur in the ports of the Black Sea by 1340 from trade routes starting from Sarai during the same period a new mainland route connecting Sarai Tana and Caffa had been established with the support of the Golden Horde The Golden Horde was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate the authors confirm the so-called pestis secunda that occured from 1357 to 1366 “The group of aDNA that belongs to thepestis secundaincludes samples from London Bolgar-City (Russia) and the newly presented two aDNA from Bergen-op-Zoom Four point mutations separate the group of aDNA of the Black Death from the group that belongs to thepestis secunda we claim that thepestis secundamight also be the result of the introduction ofY pestisalong the fur trade routes established between Novgorod (Russia) and Western Europe through the Hanseatic League” by describing all previously and newly described aDNA of Y Namouchi and colleagues provided additional evidence that the recurrent plague outbreaks during the Second plague Pandemic were the result of multiple waves of introduction of Y pestis from a reservoir located in Eastern Europe/Central Asia This result is in line with previous studies based on ecological evidence as-well-as human movement would have contributed to the rapid spread of plague throughout Europe during the Middle Ages Click here to read the article “Integrative approach using Yersinia pestisgenomes to revisit the historical landscape of plague during the Medieval Period” from PNAS Top Image: The fur trade from the East towards Western Europa followed two major routes during the Middle Ages Illustration courtesy Amine Namouchi / University of Oslo We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model We aim to be the leading content provider about all things medieval podcast and Youtube page offers news and resources about the Middle Ages We hope that are our audience wants to support us so that we can further develop our podcast and remove the advertising on our platforms This will also allow our fans to get more involved in what content we do produce Member Login