In the Working Group Environmental Monitoring of the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, scientists from various disciplines are involved in exchanging experiences and making contributions to the continuous improvement of the quality of environmental monitoring.
Key topics are discussed at two to three working group meetings each year. A particular concern is to make the monitoring data collected usable. As part of the annual "Environment" conference, which the Division and the SETAC-GLB will hold together, the working group will organize scientific sessions on current environmental monitoring topics.
AK members are actively involved in the following environmental monitoring projects:
Contact: Dr. Heinz Rüdel
In 2022, a virtual meeting of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring was organized due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main topic of the event in April 2022 was environmental monitoring with suspended matter. Over 40 people took part in this online event. The spectrum of contributions included, among others, the monitoring of plastic additives and their Literature with suspended matter samples from the environmental sample bank, the investigation of trends of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in suspended matter using target analysis and TOP assay and with the help of the sum parameter EOF, as well as biodiversity studies using environmental DNA from suspended matter.
From September 5th to 7th, the SETAC-GLB annual conference "Environment 2022" took place as a face-to-face event in Emden with the participation of the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology . As part of this conference, the Working Group Environmental Monitoring organized a session on moss monitoring. Other sessions dealt with various environmental monitoring topics such as the monitoring of long-term trends.
The new election of the management of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring, originally planned for 2020, was postponed due to Corona, as the statutes stipulated that the election of the working group management was to be held in person at a working group meeting. Since no in-person meeting of the working group could take place in 2021 and 2022, the term of office of the working group management was extended by a resolution of the board of the Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology . A new management was elected at a working group meeting in January 2023. Since the working group statutes had since been changed, the election could also be held at an online meeting. In addition to the previous members of the management - Prof. Dr. Winfried Schröder, Vechta; Prof. Dr. Jan Schwarzbauer, Aachen; Dr. Heinz Rüdel, Schmallenberg - two other colleagues were elected to the working group management: Dr. Bernd Göckener (Fraunhofer IME, Schmallenberg) and PD Dr. Wolfgang Körner (Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU), Augsburg). In the technical part of the meeting, which was attended by around 30 people, several contributions on pollution in the North Sea were presented and discussed.
Another virtual working group meeting is planned for mid-2023. The topic of the meeting is to address the question "New substances in environmental monitoring - are we measuring what is relevant?" in several contributions.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no face-to-face events of the working group (AK) environmental monitoring could be held in 2021. For this reason, two lecture events were held as virtual meetings over the course of the year, with speakers invited to each of the main topics.
The topic of the event in June 2021 was vegetation monitoring, where speakers presented developments and results from moss monitoring and from the environmental sample bank program. The event with more than 30 participants dealt, for example, with the selection of measuring points, the sampling and processing of moss samples, the results of metal pollution from moss monitoring in Bavaria and the analysis of halogenated flame retardants in tree samples from the Federal Environmental Specimen Bank. In another contribution, the results of a retrospective monitoring of plant-associated arthropod communities using environmental DNA metabarcoding from archived leaf and needle samples from the environmental specimen bank were presented.
The main topic of the virtual AK meeting at the end of November 2021 with around 50 participants was the monitoring of active substances in plant protection products (PPP). Contributions dealt with investigations of small bodies of water for PPPs and feedback on PPP approval, results of airborne monitoring of PPPs and results of PPP investigations of deposit samples and indicator plants from Bavaria.
In September 2021, at the virtual Conference "Environment 2021", which was organized by the SETAC-GLB and the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology , a session on the topic " Working Group Environmental Monitoring and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) - recording and evaluation organized. The focus was on approaches to analyzing the potential total exposure in environmental samples using the "total oxidizable precursors" assay (TOP assay) and other summary approaches such as recording the extractable organic fluorine compounds (EOF). With 70 participants, the session was well attended. A detailed report on the session was published in the Division 's communications (issue 4, 2021; pp. 122-124).
The first meeting of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring in 2022 could also only be organized as a virtual event. At the beginning of April 2022, more than 40 people took part in the AK meeting on the subject of environmental monitoring with suspended matter. The spectrum of contributions included the monitoring of plastic additives and their Literature with suspended matter samples from the environmental sample bank, the investigation of trends in perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) using the target and TOP assay and using the sum parameter EOF in suspended matter. Further presentations dealt with the results and case studies of the retrospective non-target analysis of trace substances in suspended matter, studies on suspended matter samples on contamination with quaternary alkyl ammonium compounds and on the development of multi-resistance in environmental organisms in the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as retrospective biodiversity studies using environmental DNA from suspended matter from the environmental sample bank in the TrendDNA project.
Further information on the AK meetings held and on Working Group Environmental Monitoring in general is available via the e-mail contact given on this page (see box on the right).
Since the planned election could not be carried out at a face-to-face meeting due to corona, the previous management of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring Monitoring Working Group is still active as an executive. Until the election planned for the course of 2022, the AK will be headed jointly by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Winfried Schröder (Uni Vechta) and Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen University).
In 2020, three meetings of the environmental monitoring working group (AK) were organised. In January 2020, a meeting took place in Berlin, at which a room of the Federal Environment Agency could be used. The session with around 20 participants focused on the topic "Phosphonates in the aquatic environment". Experts from various institutions presented and discussed research results on the characterization and determination of technical phosphonic acids in waste water and sediment samples, on the biological degradation of aminophosphonates and on investigations of refractory phosphorus in the effluent of a sewage treatment plant.
Due to corona, the other events of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring in 2020 could only take place as video conferences. In July 2020, various participants presented the EU project Life Apex (https://lifeapex.eu), in which the systematic use of pollutant data from top predators and their prey in chemical management is to be promoted. Here, methods of non-target and suspect screening are to be used in order to characterize the exposure to chemicals in the organisms and, in particular, to use possible accumulations of substances in top predators as an early warning system. 25 participants discussed various aspects of this topic online. Another meeting of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring then took place at the end of November 2020. At this meeting with about 50 participants, environmental monitoring and risk assessment of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS) were the main topics. Speakers presented, for example, contributions on the status of PFAS assessment and regulation, on PFAS trend studies by the Federal Environmental Specimen Bank, on analysis methods for PFAS that also include precursor compounds (TOP assay), on background levels of PFAS in soils and on Evaluation of PFAS in food. In a final round, the results were lively discussed.
At least two meetings of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring are planned for 2021. The first meeting, which took place as a video conference at the beginning of June, dealt with vegetation monitoring. Speakers presented developments and results from moss monitoring and from the environmental specimen bank program. This involved, for example, the selection of measuring points and the taking of moss samples, the results of metal pollution from moss monitoring in Bavaria and the analysis of halogenated flame retardants in tree samples from the environmental sample bank.
The Working Group Environmental Monitoring is headed jointly by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Winfried Schröder (Uni Vechta) and Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen University). Due to corona, the regular election of the management of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring could not be carried out as planned during a face-to-face meeting in 2020. This is to be made up for at a meeting at the end of 2021. If no meeting is possible by the end of the year, the election would be carried out as a postal vote. Further information on the AK meetings held and on Working Group Environmental Monitoring in general is available via the e-mail contact given on this page (see box on the right).
In 2019, two meetings of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring took place. At the meeting in May 2019, the topic of "biota monitoring" was discussed. While one contribution dealt with fish monitoring for the monitoring of priority substances of the Water Framework Directive, another presentation dealt with the retrospective investigation of cyclic methylsiloxanes in fish from the environmental sample bank. The second meeting in October 2019 focused on the topic "environmental monitoring of mercury in terrestrial ecosystems". Here, for example, researchers presented studies on the development of a method for measuring wet mercury deposition under the canopy of forests and on the atmospheric input of mercury in alpine ecosystems. Minutes of the meetings are available for those interested.
The main topics of two meetings from previous years formed the basis of publications that appeared in 2019. The article ?Rating the risks of anticoagulant rodenticides in the aquatic environment: a review? (Environmental Chemistry Letters 2019, 17, 215-240; link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10311-018-0788-6 ) discusses, among other things, findings from the environmental monitoring of rodenticides. From the meeting in December 2018, at which scientists from the UBA, UFZ, TZW Karlsruhe, TU Munich and LfU Bayern presented the topic "Persistent, Mobile and Toxic Substances" from different perspectives, another contribution arose: Persistent, mobile and toxic substances in the environment: a spotlight on current research and regulatory activities (Environmental Sciences Europe 2020, 32:5; enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-019-0286-x, open access).
In 2020, two meetings of the Working Group Environmental Monitoring are planned. The first meeting at the end of January will focus on the topic "Phosphonates in the aquatic environment". The AK management is available for further information on the Working Group Environmental Monitoring . The Working Group Environmental Monitoring is headed jointly by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Winfried Schröder (Uni Vechta) and Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen University).
The Working Group Environmental Monitoring is headed jointly by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen University) and Winfried Schröder (Uni Vechta). In 2018, the members of the AK met for a meeting at which colleagues from UBA, Ufz, TZW Karlsruhe, TU Munich and LfU Bayern presented the topic "Persistent, Mobile and Toxic Substances" from different perspectives. About 20 AK members and guests took part in the meeting, which took place in the Federal Environment Agency in Berlin. Minutes of the meeting are available upon request. The last meeting took place in May 2019 and dealt with the topic of biota monitoring with contributions on fish monitoring in the context of the Water Framework Directive and on the retrospective investigation of methylsiloxanes in fish from the environmental specimen bank. Another AK meeting is planned for October 2019. The AK management will be happy to provide further information on the Working Group Environmental Monitoring .
Dr. Bernd Göckener (Chair)
Fraunhofer IME, Schmallenberg
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Wolfgang Körner (Deputy Chair)
Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU), Augsburg
Dr. Heinz Rüdel
Herne (until 7/2022 Fraunhofer IME, Schmallenberg)
Prof. Dr. Winfried Schröder
University of Vechta
Prof. Dr. Jan Schwarzbauer
RWTH Aachen University University
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last modified: 06.08.2024 10:59 H from Translator
