TY - JOUR

T1 - Novel sensor technologies towards environmental health monitoring in urban environments

T2 - a case study in the Niger Delta (Nigeria)

AU - Obinaju, Blessing

AU - Alaoma, Alozie

AU - Martin, Francis Luke

PY - 2014/9

Y1 - 2014/9

N2 - The Niger Delta (Nigeria) is an exemplar of a legacy of environmental pollution. Limited knowledge on spatial and temporal pollutant distributions in the region highlights the need for biomonitoring approaches to study impacts on sentinel organisms. This study evaluated whether infrared (IR) spectroscopy and multivariate analysis could detect alterations in biomolecules in samples in differing exposure scenarios, i.e., spatial and temporal using African catfish (Heterobranchus bidorsalis) or water spinach (Ipomea aquatica). Significant spectral differences between tissues isolated from African catfish based on site or season were observed; in a region where fish appeared not to be present, water spinach was used as a surrogate sentinel organism. Using one-way ANOVA, the spectral categories were significant (P < 0.0001). The applicability of IR spectroscopy to detect subtle changes in target biological molecules within sentinel organisms along with its low-cost yet high-throughput potential suggests that biospectroscopy permits real-time evaluation of environmental exposure effects.

AB - The Niger Delta (Nigeria) is an exemplar of a legacy of environmental pollution. Limited knowledge on spatial and temporal pollutant distributions in the region highlights the need for biomonitoring approaches to study impacts on sentinel organisms. This study evaluated whether infrared (IR) spectroscopy and multivariate analysis could detect alterations in biomolecules in samples in differing exposure scenarios, i.e., spatial and temporal using African catfish (Heterobranchus bidorsalis) or water spinach (Ipomea aquatica). Significant spectral differences between tissues isolated from African catfish based on site or season were observed; in a region where fish appeared not to be present, water spinach was used as a surrogate sentinel organism. Using one-way ANOVA, the spectral categories were significant (P < 0.0001). The applicability of IR spectroscopy to detect subtle changes in target biological molecules within sentinel organisms along with its low-cost yet high-throughput potential suggests that biospectroscopy permits real-time evaluation of environmental exposure effects.

KW - African catfish (Heterobranchus bidorsalis)

KW - Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

KW - Bio-monitoring

KW - Niger Delta (Nigeria)

KW - Water spinach (Ipomea aquatica)

U2 - 10.1016/j.envpol.2014.02.004

DO - 10.1016/j.envpol.2014.02.004

M3 - Journal article

VL - 192

SP - 222

EP - 231

JO - Environmental Pollution

JF - Environmental Pollution

SN - 0269-7491

ER -