Abstract
Rare Earth Elements (REE) are becoming increasingly important economically and highly exploited, thus contributing to REE increases in ecosystems. The ecotoxicological effects of REE on the terrestrial environment are, however, not fully understood and information on the biological effects of REE is urgently required for environmental risk assessments. In this review, studies and gaps in the existing scientific literature regarding the toxicological effects of REE on terrestrial organisms are presented. A total of 41 articles from the Web of Science database are discussed. La and Ce are the most studied elements, while little information is found concerning heavy REE. Most studies have been performed on plant species and few investigations are available for animals. Plant effects such as reduced mitotic index, germination and photosynthesis and antioxidant system enzyme alterations have been reported. Invertebrate effects include mortality, reproduction alterations and reduced locomotion. Based on the limited number of articles on terrestrial environment REE effects, this review highlights the need for more detailed studies in order to elucidate the effects associated with the REE hormesis and perform complete risk assessments with the establishment of safe REE usage limits.
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The authors would like to thank CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) (Finance Code 001). EMS thanks to the FAPERJ project (E-26/203.165/2017) and (E-21/201.271/2021). The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which greatly contributed to improving the final version of the article. JCN thanks the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – CNPq for the productivity scholarship (307298/2020-5).
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Egler, S.G., Niemeyer, J.C., Correia, F.V. et al. Effects of rare earth elements (REE) on terrestrial organisms: current status and future directions. Ecotoxicology 31, 689–699 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-022-02542-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-022-02542-6