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Biomonitoring and Sourcing Toxic Elements Using Vascular Epiphytes of the Tillandsia Genus in the Mining Region of Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero, Southern Mexico

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Abstract

The concentration of As, Pb, Cd, Zn, Fe, Mn, and Cu and the Sr and Pb isotopic compositions were determined in four species of the vascular epiphyte Tillandsia (T. caput medusae, T. ionantha, T. recurvata, and T. sp), to evaluate their capacity to biomonitor the air quality and the sources of lithogenic particles and toxic elements in a severely contaminated site from the mining region of Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero (southern Mexico). With the exception of Cu, mean concentrations are typically higher in the contaminated site relative to a reference (uncontaminated) site, and the incrustation of metal-bearing particles (mainly PM10 and PM2.5) on leaves and roots seems to be the most significant mechanism of incorporation of these pollutants to plants. The Sr isotopic composition indicated that surrounding lithology is the main source of lithogenic particles, whereas statistical tools and Pb isotope ratios revealed a genetic link of toxic elements in epiphytes with Taxco ores and mining wastes, which confirm the capacity of the evaluated epiphytes to record local environmental conditions. The presence of abundant metal-bearing particles, particularly in the PM2.5, may represent a serious threat to the health of wild fauna, livestock, and humans in the zone. The study demonstrated that vascular epiphytes of the Tillandsia genus could be used as an efficient, low-cost, biotechnological tool for monitoring the air quality in severely contaminated polymetallic sites such as mining and smelting zones, as well as for sourcing lithogenic and metal-bearing particles.

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Acknowledgments

This contribution is part of the Ph D thesis by JEMR who benefited from a scholarship by Conacyt. Authors are grateful to Jazmin Alaide López Díaz for technical support in the acquisition of SEM images and EDX analyses and Analine B. Vázquez-Bahena for helping in the preparation and digestion of samples. Assistance by Mark Baker during the acquisition of Pb and Sr isotopic data is also greatly appreciated. This contribution was partly supported by a Conacyt Basic Research Grant (CB-2014-01-241696) to Lopezaraiza-Mikel and research facilities grants (INFR-2014-02-231511 and INFR-2017-01-281180) to Talavera-Mendoza. We are grateful to Travis Ashworth for the detailed review of the English version of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Ciencias de Desarrollo Regional, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Los Pinos s/n, Col. El Roble, 39640, Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

    Juan Ernesto Mendoza-Ramos, Laura Sampedro-Rosas & José Luis Rosas-Acevedo

  2. Escuela Superior de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Ex Hacienda San Juan Bautista s/n, 40323, Taxco el Viejo, Guerrero, Mexico

    Oscar Talavera-Mendoza & Sergio Adrián Salgado-Souto

  3. Escuela Superior de Desarrollo Sustentable, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Carretera Nacional Acapulco-Zihuatanejo km 106+900. Colonia Las Tunas, 40900, Tecpan de Galeana, Guerrero, Mexico

    Martha Elena Lopezaraiza-Mikel & Roberto Carlos Sayago-Lorenzana

  4. Laboratorio Nacional de Análisis y Síntesis Ecológica (LANASE), Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores (ENES), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, C.P, Mexico

    Martha Elena Lopezaraiza-Mikel & Roberto Carlos Sayago-Lorenzana

  5. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 East 4th Street, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    Joaquin Ruiz

  6. Programa de Ecología Genómica, Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad s/n, Col. Chamilpa, AP. 565-A, CP 62210, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

    José Luis Aguirre-Noyola

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  1. Juan Ernesto Mendoza-Ramos
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  2. Oscar Talavera-Mendoza
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  3. Martha Elena Lopezaraiza-Mikel
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Correspondence to Oscar Talavera-Mendoza.

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Highlights

• Tillandsia records toxic elements of suspended particulate in mining regions

• Incrustation of particles on leaves and roots is the main mechanism of accumulation

• Statistics reveals a genetic link of As, Pb, Zn, Cd, Fe, Mn, and Cu in epiphytes

• Sr and Pb isotopes identify sources of lithophile and chalcophile elements

• Metal-bearing PM 2.5 represents a threat to fauna including humans in the zone

Supplementary Information

Table S1

Concentrations (in mg kg−1) of TEs of epiphytes from the contaminated and reference sites from the mining region of Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero, Mexico. Arithmetic mean, standard deviation and Sr-normalized EF. p-values indicate significance between individuals from the contaminated and reference sites (PDF 52 kb)

Table S2

Pearson correlation coefficients between metals and arsenic in epiphytes from the mining region of Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero. Green cells are correlation coefficients of epiphytes from the contaminated site and orange cells are from the reference site (n = 12 each). Bolt values highlight significant correlations (p < 0.05) (PDF 10 kb)

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Mendoza-Ramos, J.E., Talavera-Mendoza, O., Lopezaraiza-Mikel, M.E. et al. Biomonitoring and Sourcing Toxic Elements Using Vascular Epiphytes of the Tillandsia Genus in the Mining Region of Taxco de Alarcón, Guerrero, Southern Mexico. Water Air Soil Pollut 232, 9 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-020-04961-9

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