Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Lucas Heights, Locked Bag 2001, NSW, 2232, Australia; School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Chemosphere. 2023 Nov;340:139939. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139939. Epub 2023 Aug 23.
Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) can be found in decommissioned oil and gas infrastructure (e.g. pipelines), including scales. The effects of NORM contaminants from offshore infrastructure on benthic macroorganisms remain poorly understood. To test the potential ecological effects of NORM-contaminated scale, we exposed a marine amphipod, a clam and a polychaete to marine sediments spiked with low level concentrations of barium sulfate scale retrieved from a decommissioned subsea pipe. Only amphipods were included in further analysis due to treatment mortalities of the clam and polychaete. Barium (Ba) and copper (Cu) were elevated in the seawater overlying the spiked sediments, although no sediment metals exceeded guidelines. Po was the only NORM detected in the overlying waters while both Po and Ra were significantly elevated in the scale-contaminated sediments when compared with the control sediments. The whole-body burden of Ba and Ra were significantly higher in the scale-exposed amphipods. Using experiment- and scale-specific parameters in biota dose assessments suggested potential dose rates may elicit individual and population level effects. Future work is needed to assess the biological impacts and effects of NORM scale at elevated levels above background concentrations and the accumulation of NORM-associated contaminants by marine organisms.
天然放射性物质（NORMs）可在退役的石油和天然气基础设施（例如管道）中找到，包括水垢。离岸基础设施中的 NORM 污染物对底栖大型生物的影响仍知之甚少。为了测试受 NORM 污染水垢的潜在生态影响，我们将一种海洋端足类动物、一种蛤和一种多毛类动物暴露于从退役海底管道中回收的低浓度硫酸钡水垢污染的海洋沉积物中。由于蛤和多毛类动物的处理死亡率，只有端足类动物被包括在进一步的分析中。尽管没有一种沉积物金属超过了指导方针，但在添加沉积物的海水中，钡（Ba）和铜（Cu）的含量升高了。Po 是在覆盖水层中唯一检测到的 NORM，而与对照沉积物相比，受污染水垢的沉积物中 Po 和 Ra 的含量显著升高。暴露于水垢中的端足类动物体内的 Ba 和 Ra 总量明显更高。在生物群剂量评估中使用实验和特定于水垢的参数表明，潜在的剂量率可能会引起个体和种群水平的影响。未来需要评估 NORM 水垢在背景浓度以上的水平升高以及海洋生物对 NORM 相关污染物的积累所产生的生物学影响和效应。
