Retrospective analysis of heavy metal contamination in Rhode Island based on old and new herbarium specimens1

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Abstract

Premise of the study:

Herbarium specimens may provide a record of past environmental conditions, including heavy metal pollution. To explore this potential, we compared concentrations of copper, lead, and zinc in historical and new collections from four sites in Rhode Island, USA.

Methods:

We compared historical specimens (1846 to 1916) to congener specimens collected in 2015 at three former industrial sites in Providence, Rhode Island, and one nonindustrial site on Block Island. Leaf material was prepared by UltraWAVE SRC Microwave Digestion, and heavy metal concentrations were measured by inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectroscopy.

Results:

Heavy metal concentrations in the historical and new specimens were measurable for all elements tested, and levels of copper and zinc were comparable in the historical and 2015 collections. By contrast, the concentration of lead declined at all sites over time. Significant variability in heavy metal concentration was observed between taxa, reflecting their varied potential for elemental accumulation.

Discussion:

It seems clear that herbarium specimens can be used to evaluate past levels of pollution and assess local environmental changes. With careful sampling effort, these specimens can be a valuable part of environmental science research. Broadening the possible applications for herbarium collections in this way increases their relevance in an era of reduced funding for collections-based research.

Related collections

Most cited references 25

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Lead poisoning.

Herbert Needleman (2004)

Understanding of lead toxicity has advanced substantially over the past three decades, and focus has shifted from high-dose effects in clinically symptomatic individuals to the consequences of exposure at lower doses that cause no symptoms, particularly in children and fetuses. The availability of more sensitive analytic methods has made it possible to measure lead at much lower concentrations. This advance, along with more refined epidemiological techniques and better outcome measures, has lowered the least observable effect level until it approaches zero. As a consequence, the segment of the population who are diagnosed with exposure to toxic levels has expanded. At the same time, environmental efforts, most importantly the removal of lead from gasoline, have dramatically reduced the amount of lead in the biosphere. The remaining major source of lead is older housing stock. Although the cost of lead paint abatement is measured in billions of dollars, the monetized benefits of such a Herculean task have been shown to far outweigh the costs.

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Herbarium specimens demonstrate earlier flowering times in response to warming in Boston.

Richard B Primack, J Primack, Richard Miller … (2004)

Museum specimens collected in the past may be a valuable source of information on the response of species to climate change. This idea was tested by comparing the flowering times during the year 2003 of 229 living plants growing at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, with 372 records of flowering times from 1885 to 2002 using herbarium specimens of the same individual plants. During this period, Boston experienced a 1.5°C increase in mean annual temperature. Flowering times became progressively earlier; plants flowered 8 d earlier from 1980 to 2002 than they did from 1900 to 1920. Most of this shift toward earlier flowering times is explained by the influence of temperature, especially temperatures in the months of February, March, April, and May, on flowering time. Plants with a long flowering duration appear to be as useful for detecting responses to changing temperatures as plants with a short flowering duration. Additional studies using herbarium specimens to detect responses to climate change could examine specimens from specific, intensively collected localities, such as mountain peaks, islands, and unique habitats.

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Herbarium records are reliable sources of phenological change driven by climate and provide novel insights into species' phenological cueing mechanisms.

Charles Davis, Charles Willis, Bryan Connolly … (2015)

Climate change has resulted in major changes in the phenology of some species but not others. Long-term field observational records provide the best assessment of these changes, but geographic and taxonomic biases limit their utility. Plant specimens in herbaria have been hypothesized to provide a wealth of additional data for studying phenological responses to climatic change. However, no study to our knowledge has comprehensively addressed whether herbarium data are accurate measures of phenological response and thus applicable to addressing such questions.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Appl Plant Sci

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Appl Plant Sci

Journal ID (publisher-id): apps

Title: Applications in Plant Sciences

Publisher: Botanical Society of America

ISSN (Electronic): 2168-0450

Publication date Collection: January 2017

Publication date (Electronic): 6 January 2017

Volume: 5

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: apps.1600108

Affiliations

[2 ]Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, 324 Brook Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA

[3 ]Brown University Herbarium, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, 34 Olive Street, Box G-B225, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA

Author notes

[1]

The authors thank Laura Messier and Joe Orchardo (Brown Environmental Chemistry Facilities) for assistance with element analysis. Funding for S.M.R. was provided by the Brown Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). We also thank Martha Cooper for curatorial assistance in the Brown University Herbarium (BRU) and the three anonymous reviewers who provided thoughtful comments and suggestions that have improved the manuscript.

[4 ]Author for correspondence: timothy_whitfeld@ 123456brown.edu

Article

Publisher ID: apps1600108

DOI: 10.3732/apps.1600108

PMC ID: 5231915

SO-VID: 8ba715e4-5d7d-4f98-8663-0094c3b0eb57

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0), which permits unrestricted noncommercial use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited and the new work is distributed under the same license as the original.

History

Date received : 14 September 2016

Date accepted : 23 November 2016

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