Biomonitoring for wide area surveying in landmine detection using honeybees and optical sensing
Abstract
Humanitarian demining is a worldwide effort and the range of climates and environments prevent any one detection method being suitable for all sites, so more tools are required for safe and efficient explosives sensing. Landmines emit a chemical flux over time, and honeybees can collect the trace residues of explosives (as particles or as vapour) on their body hairs. This capability was exploited using a passive method allowing the honeybees to freely forage in a mined area, where trace explosives present in the environment stuck to the honeybee body, which were subsequently transferred onto an adsorbent material for analysis by a fluorescent polymer sensor. Potential false positive sources were investigated, namely common bee pheromones, the anti-varroa pesticide Amitraz, and the environment around a clean apiary, and no significant response was found to any from the sensor. The mined site gave a substantial response in the optical sensor films, with quenching efficiencies of up to 38%. A model was adapted to estimate the mass of explosives returned to the colony, which may be useful for estimating the number of mines in a given area.
Citation
Gillanders , R N , Glackin , J ME , Babić , Z , Muštra , M , Simić , M , Kezić , N , Turnbull , G A & Filipi , J 2021 , ' Biomonitoring for wide area surveying in landmine detection using honeybees and optical sensing ' , Chemosphere , vol. 273 , 129646 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129646
Publication
Chemosphere
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0045-6535Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129646.
Description
This project has received funding from NATO Science for Peace & Security under grant agreement MYP G5355, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under EP/K503940/1.Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.