NNI Nanoinformatics Conference 2023: Movement Toward a Common Infrastructure for Federal nanoEHS Data Computational Toxicology: Short Communication.

The National Nanotechnology Initiative organized a Nanoinformatics Conference in the 2023 Biden-Harris Administration's Year of Open Science, which included interested U.S. and EU stakeholders, and preceded the U.S.-EU COR meeting on November 15th, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Progress in the development of a common nanoinformatics infrastructure in the European Union and United States were discussed. Development of contributing, individual database projects, and their strengths and weaknesses, were highlighted. Recommendations and next steps for a U.S. nanoEHS common infrastructure were discussed in light of the pending update of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)'s Environmental, Health and Safety Research Strategy, and U.S. efforts to curate and house nano Environmental Health and Safety (nanoEHS) data from U.S. federal stakeholder groups. Improved data standards, for reporting and storage have been identified as areas where concerted efforts could most benefit initially. Areas that were not addressed at the conference, but that are critical to progress of the U.S. federal consortium effort are the evaluation of data formats according to use and sustainability measures; modeler and end user, including risk-assessor and regulator perspectives; a need for a community forum or shared data location that is not hosted by any individual U.S. federal agency, and is accessible to the public; as well as emerging needs for integration with new data types such as micro and nano plastics, and interoperability with other data and meta-data, such as adverse outcome pathway information. Future progress will depend on continued interaction of the U.S. and EU CORs, stakeholders and partners in the continued development goals for shared or interoperable infrastructure for nanoEHS.

Evaluation of bioaccumulation of nanoplastics, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, and graphene family materials.

Bioaccumulation is a key factor in understanding the potential ecotoxicity of substances. While there are well-developed models and methods to evaluate bioaccumulation of dissolved organic and inorganic substances, it is substantially more challenging to assess bioaccumulation of particulate contaminants such as engineered carbon nanomaterials (CNMs; carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene family nanomaterials (GFNs), and fullerenes) and nanoplastics. In this study, the methods used to evaluate bioaccumulation of different CNMs and nanoplastics are critically reviewed. In plant studies, uptake of CNMs and nanoplastics into the roots and stems was observed. For multicellular organisms other than plants, absorbance across epithelial surfaces was typically limited. Biomagnification was not observed for CNTs and GFNs but were observed for nanoplastics in some studies. However, the reported absorption in many nanoplastic studies may be a consequence of an experimental artifact, namely release of the fluorescent probe from the plastic particles and subsequent uptake. We identify that additional work is needed to develop analytical methods to provide robust, orthogonal methods that can measure unlabeled (e.g., without isotopic or fluorescent labels) CNMs and nanoplastics.

Increasing evidence indicates low bioaccumulation of carbon nanotubes.

As the production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) expands, so might the potential for release into the environment. The possibility of bioaccumulation and toxicological effects has prompted research on their fate and potential ecological effects. For many organic chemicals, bioaccumulation properties are associated with lipid-water partitioning properties. However, predictions based on phase partitioning provide a poor fit for nanomaterials. In the absence of data on the bioaccumulation and other properties of CNTs, the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) within the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) subjects new pre-manufacture submissions for all nanomaterials to a higher-level review. We review the literature on CNT bioaccumulation by plants, invertebrates and non-mammalian vertebrates, summarizing 40 studies to improve the assessment of the potential for bioaccumulation. Because the properties and environmental fate of CNTs may be affected by type (single versus multiwall), functionalization, and dosing technique, the bioaccumulation studies were reviewed with respect to these factors. Absorption into tissues and elimination behaviors across species were also investigated. All of the invertebrate and non-mammalian vertebrate studies showed little to no absorption of the material from the gut tract to other tissues. These findings combined with the lack of biomagnification in the CNT trophic transfer studies conducted to date suggest that the overall risk of trophic transfer is low. Based on the available data, in particular the low levels of absorption of CNTs across epithelial surfaces, CNTs generally appear to form a class that should be designated as a low concern for bioaccumulation.

Global patterns of marine mammal, seabird, and sea turtle bycatch reveal taxa-specific and cumulative megafauna hotspots.

Recent research on ocean health has found large predator abundance to be a key element of ocean condition. Fisheries can impact large predator abundance directly through targeted capture and indirectly through incidental capture of nontarget species or bycatch. However, measures of the global nature of bycatch are lacking for air-breathing megafauna. We fill this knowledge gap and present a synoptic global assessment of the distribution and intensity of bycatch of seabirds, marine mammals, and sea turtles based on empirical data from the three most commonly used types of fishing gears worldwide. We identify taxa-specific hotspots of bycatch intensity and find evidence of cumulative impacts across fishing fleets and gears. This global map of bycatch illustrates where data are particularly scarce--in coastal and small-scale fisheries and ocean regions that support developed industrial fisheries and millions of small-scale fishers--and identifies fishing areas where, given the evidence of cumulative hotspots across gear and taxa, traditional species or gear-specific bycatch management and mitigation efforts may be necessary but not sufficient. Given the global distribution of bycatch and the mitigation success achieved by some fleets, the reduction of air-breathing megafauna bycatch is both an urgent and achievable conservation priority.

Characterizing fishing effort and spatial extent of coastal fisheries.

Biodiverse coastal zones are often areas of intense fishing pressure due to the high relative density of fishing capacity in these nearshore regions. Although overcapacity is one of the central challenges to fisheries sustainability in coastal zones, accurate estimates of fishing pressure in coastal zones are limited, hampering the assessment of the direct and collateral impacts (e.g., habitat degradation, bycatch) of fishing. We compiled a comprehensive database of fishing effort metrics and the corresponding spatial limits of fisheries and used a spatial analysis program (FEET) to map fishing effort density (measured as boat-meters per km²) in the coastal zones of six ocean regions. We also considered the utility of a number of socioeconomic variables as indicators of fishing pressure at the national level; fishing density increased as a function of population size and decreased as a function of coastline length. Our mapping exercise points to intra and interregional 'hotspots' of coastal fishing pressure. The significant and intuitive relationships we found between fishing density and population size and coastline length may help with coarse regional characterizations of fishing pressure. However, spatially-delimited fishing effort data are needed to accurately map fishing hotspots, i.e., areas of intense fishing activity. We suggest that estimates of fishing effort, not just target catch or yield, serve as a necessary measure of fishing activity, which is a key link to evaluating sustainability and environmental impacts of coastal fisheries.