Effects of in situ exposure to tritiated natural environments A multi-biomarker approach using the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas

International audienceAquatic ecosystems are chronically exposed to radionuclides as well as other pollutants. Increased concentrations of pollutants in aquatic environments can present a risk to exposed organisms, including fish. The goal of this study was to characterize the effects of tritium, in the context of natural environments, on the health of fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas. Fish were exposed to tritium (activity concentrations ranging from 2 to 23,000 Bq/L) and also to various concentrations of several metals to replicate multiple-stressor environments. Fish were exposed for 60 days, then transferred to the tritium background site where they stayed for another 60 days. Tritium, in the forms of tritiated water (HTO) and organically bound tritium (OBT), and a series of fish health indicators were measured in fish tissues at seven time points throughout the 120 days required to complete the exposure and the depuration phases. Results showed effects of environmental exposure following the increase of tritium activity and metals concentrations in water. The internal dose rates of tritium, estimated from tissue HTO and OBT activity concentrations, were consistently low (maximum of 0.2 μGy/h) compared to levels at which population effects may be expected (> 100 μGy/h) and no effects were observed on survival, fish condition, gonado-somatic, hepato-somatic, spleno-somatic and metabolic indices (RNA/DNA, proteins/DNA and protein carbonylation (in gonads and kidneys)). Using multivariate analyses, we showed that several biomarkers (DNA damages, MN frequency, gamma-H2AX, SFA/MUFA ratios, lysosomal membrane integrity, AChE, SOD, phagocytosis and esterase activities) were exclusively correlated with fish tritium internal dose rate, showing that tritium induced genotoxicity, DNA repair activity, changes in fatty acid composition, and immune, neural and antioxidant responses. Some biomarkers were responding to the presence of metals, but overall, more biomarkers were linked to internalized tritium. The results are discussed in the context of multiple stressors involving metals and tritium. © 2017 Elsevier B.V

Xenoliths in ultrapotassic volcanic rocks in the Lhasa block: direct evidence for crust–mantle mixing and metamorphism in the deep crust

Felsic granulite xenoliths entrained in Miocene (~13 Ma) isotopically evolved, mantle-derived ultrapotassic volcanic (UPV) dykes in southern Tibet are refractory meta-granitoids with garnet and rutile in a near-anhydrous quartzo-feldspathic assemblage. High F–Ti (~4 wt.% TiO2 and ~3 wt.% F) phlogopite occurs as small inclusions in garnet, except for one sample where it occurs as flakes in a quartz-plagioclase-rich rock. High Si (~3.45) phengite is found as flakes in another xenolith sample. The refractory mineralogy suggests that the xenoliths underwent high-T and high-P metamorphism (800–850 °C, >15 kbar). Zircons show four main age groupings: 1.0–0.5 Ga, 50–45, 35–20, and 16–13 Ma. The oldest group is similar to common inherited zircons in the Gangdese belt, whereas the 50–45 Ma zircons match the crystallization age and juvenile character (eHfi +0.5 to +6.5) of Eocene Gangdese arc magmas. Together these two age groups indicate that a component of the xenolith was sourced from Gangdese arc rocks. The 35–20 Ma Miocene ages are derived from zircons with similar Hf–O isotopic composition as the Eocene Gangdese magmatic zircons. They also have similar steep REE curves, suggesting they grew in the absence of garnet. These zircons mark a period of early Miocene remelting of the Eocene Gangdese arc. By contrast, the youngest zircons (13.0 ± 4.9 Ma, MSWD = 1.3) are not zoned, have much lower HREE contents than the previous group, and flat HREE patterns. They also have distinctive high Th/U ratios, high zircon d18O (+8.73–8.97 ‰) values, and extremely low eHfi (-12.7 to -9.4) values. Such evolved Hf–O isotopic compositions are similar to values of zircons from the UPV lavas that host the xenolith, and the flat REE pattern suggests that the 13 Ma zircons formed in equilibrium with garnet. Garnets from a strongly peraluminous meta-tonalite xenolith are weakly zoned or unzoned and fall into four groups, three of which are almandine-pyrope solid solutions and have low d18O (+6 to 7.5 ‰), intermediate (d18O +8.5 to 9.0 ‰), and high d18O (+11.0 to 12.0 ‰). The fourth is almost pure andradite with d18O 10–12 ‰. Both the low and intermediate d18O groups show significant variation in Fe content, whereas the two high d18O groups are compositionally homogeneous. We interpret these features to indicate that the low and intermediate d18O group garnets grew in separate fractionating magmas that were brought together through magma mixing, whereas the high d18O groups formed under high-grade metamorphic conditions accompanied by metasomatic exchange. The garnets record complex, open-system magmatic and metamorphic processes in a single rock. Based on these features, we consider that ultrapotassic magmas interacted with juvenile 35–20 Ma crust after they intruded in the deep crust (>50 km) at ~13 Ma to form hybridized Miocene granitoid magmas, leaving a refractory residue. The ~13 Ma zircons retain the original, evolved isotopic character of the ultrapotassic magmas, and the garnets record successive stages of the melting and mixing process, along with subsequent high-grade metamorphism followed by low-temperature alteration and brecciation during entrainment and ascent in a late UPV dyke. This is an excellent example of in situ crust–mantle hybridization in the deep Tibetan crust