GLIN==> Lake Erie wetlands break down harmful chemical compounds

Lake Erie wetlands break down harmful chemical compounds

December 16, 2009

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

COLUMBUS, OH - Beyond being a haven for wildlife and plant life, wetland
areas provide the right mix of chemical compounds and physical
characteristics to break down harmful pollutants, according to Ohio Sea
Grant research from Dr. Yo Chin, Professor of Geology at Ohio State
University. 

 

Chin and his graduate student Ale Hakala have determined that over time,
pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB), an antifungal chemical now banned for use on
most crops in the U.S., can be reduced to pentachloroaniline (PCA), a
compound that should be more readily broken down by wetland bacteria. 

 

Chin studied the process at Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research
Reserve in Huron, Ohio, using a technique he has perfected over more than a
decade that slowly pulls water out of sediment in an oxygen-free
environment. Keeping oxygen out is important because the main catalyst in
the PCNB-to-PCA reaction is a form of iron scientists call iron 2 (or,
Fe(II)). If even the smallest amount of oxygen gets in, the iron oxidizes to
Fe(III), commonly known as rust, thereby ruining the experiment.

 

In the laboratory setting, when the water from the sediment had been
chemically stabilized, the reaction turning PCNB to PCA was completed in two
hours. But, surprisingly, the same reaction took one week when the team used
water that hadn't been stabilized-the way it would be found in the wetland.
This discovery opened Chin's eyes. 

 

"Everything we've done, everything anyone has done with these pore waters,
was based on manipulated compounds," he says. "In nature, the compounds
aren't manipulated in that way, so the reaction takes a week instead of two
hours. Doing it in the lab allows you to control things, but the take-home
message here is that nature doesn't want to be controlled."

 

To read more about this Ohio Sea Grant-funded research, visit
http://ohioseagrant.osu.edu/_documents/twineline/v31i4.pdf

 

The Ohio State University's Ohio Sea Grant College Program is part of NOAA
Sea Grant, a network of 30 Sea Grant Programs dedicated to the protection
and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. For information on
Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab, visit ohioseagrant.osu.edu.

###

 

Contact: 

 

Dr. Yo Chin, Ohio State University, chin.15 at osu.edu, 614.292.6953

 

 

Stacy Brannan

Associate Editor

Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory

1314 Kinnear Road

Columbus, OH 43212

614.247.7109

brannan.16 at osu.edu

 

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