The Environmental Monitoring Working Group of the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology brings together scientists from various disciplines to exchange experiences and to contribute to the continuous improvement of the quality of environmental monitoring.
At two to three working group meetings a year, key topics are discussed. A particular concern is to make the collected monitoring data usable. As part of the annual conference "Environment", which the specialist group and SETAC-GLB will organise jointly, the working group will organise scientific sessions on current environmental monitoring topics.
Working Group members are actively involved in the following environmental monitoring projects:
Contact: Dr Heinz Rüdel
In 2022, a virtual meeting of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group was organised 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 range of contributions included the monitoring of plastic additives and their sources with suspended matter samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank, the investigation of trends in 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.
The annual conference "Environment 2022" of SETAC-GLB took place from 5-7 September in Emden with the participation of the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology. As part of this conference, a session on moss monitoring was organised by the Environmental Monitoring Working Group. Other sessions dealt with various environmental monitoring topics such as the monitoring of long-term trends.The election of the new head of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group, which was originally planned for 2020, was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, as the statutes stipulate that the head of the working group should be elected in person at a working group meeting. As no face-to-face meeting of the working group could take place in 2021 and 2022 either, the term of office of the working group management was extended by a resolution of the Executive Board of the Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology Division. New leadership was elected at a working group meeting in January 2023. As the working group statutes had been amended in the meantime, the election could also be held in 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 further colleagues were elected to the AK 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 planned to be "New substances in environmental monitoring - are we measuring what is relevant?" in several contributions.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Environmental Monitoring Working Group (AK) was once again unable to hold any face-to-face events in 2021. Therefore, two lecture events were organised as virtual meetings during the course of the year, with speakers invited to speak on the main topics of each event.
The topic of the event in June 2021 was vegetation monitoring, where speakers presented developments and results from moss monitoring and the environmental specimen bank programme. The event, which was attended by over 30 participants, covered topics such as the selection of monitoring sites, the sampling and processing of moss samples, results on metal contamination from moss monitoring in Bavaria and the analysis of halogenated flame retardants in tree samples from the Federal Environmental Specimen Bank programme. Another paper presented the results of retrospective monitoring of plant-associated arthropod communities using environmental DNA metabarcoding from archived leaf and needle samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank.
The main topic of the virtual working group meeting at the end of November 2021 with around 50 participants was the monitoring of pesticide active substances (PPPs). Contributions dealt with investigations of small bodies of water for PPPs and feedback on PPP authorisation, results of air monitoring of PPPs and results of PPP investigations of deposition samples and indicator plants from Bavaria.
In September 2021, the Environmental Monitoring Working Group organised a session on "Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) - detection and assessment" at the virtual conference "Environment 2021", which was organised by SETAC-GLB and the GDCh Division of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology. The focus was on approaches to analysing the potential total load in environmental samples using the "total oxidisable precursors" assay (TOP assay) and other summary approaches such as the detection of extractable organic fluorine compounds (EOF). The session was well attended with 70 participants. A detailed report on the session was published in the Mitteilungen der Fachgruppe (issue 4, 2021; pp. 122-124).
The first meeting of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group in 2022 could also only be organised as a virtual event. At the beginning of April 2022, over 40 people took part in the working group meeting on environmental monitoring with suspended matter. The range of contributions included the monitoring of plastic additives and their sources using suspended matter samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank, the investigation of trends in per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) using target and TOP assays and the sum parameter EOF in suspended matter. Further presentations dealt with results and case studies of retrospective non-target analysis of trace substances in suspended matter, studies on suspended matter samples on the contamination with quaternary alkylammonium 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 in the environmental specimen bank in the TrendDNA project.
Further information on the working group meetings held and on environmental monitoring in general is available via the e-mail contact provided on this page (see box on the right).
As the planned election at a face-to-face meeting could not be held due to the coronavirus pandemic, the current head of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group is still acting in an executive capacity. The working group will be jointly chaired by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Winfried Schröder (University of Vechta) and Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen) until the election planned for 2022.
Three meetings of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group (AK) were organised in 2020. In January 2020, a meeting was held in Berlin, where a room at the Federal Environment Agency was kindly made available for use. The meeting with around 20 participants focussed on the topic of "Phosphonates in the aquatic environment". Experts from various institutions presented and discussed research findings on the characterisation and determination of technical phosphonic acids in wastewater and sediment samples, the biodegradation of aminophosphonates and investigations into refractory phosphorus in the effluent of a wastewater treatment plant.
Due to coronavirus, the other events organised by the Environmental Monitoring Working Group in 2020 could only take place as video conferences. In July 2020, various participants presented the EU project Life Apex (https://lifeapex.eu), which aims to advance the systematic use of pollutant data from apex predators and their prey in chemicals management. Non-target and suspect screening methods are to be used to characterise the chemical load in the organisms and, in particular, to use possible substance accumulations in apex predators as an early warning system. 25 participants discussed various aspects of this topic online. A further meeting of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group then took place at the end of November 2020. At this meeting with around 50 participants, the focus was on environmental monitoring and risk assessment of perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS). Speakers presented, for example, contributions on the status of PFAS assessment and regulation, on PFAS trend investigations by the Federal Environmental Specimen Bank, on PFAS analysis methods in which precursor compounds are also recorded (TOP assay), on background levels of PFAS in soils and on the assessment of PFAS in food. The results were lively discussed in a concluding round.At least two meetings of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group are planned for 2021. At the first meeting, which took place as a video conference at the beginning of June, the topic of vegetation monitoring was discussed. Speakers presented developments and results from moss monitoring and the environmental specimen bank programme. These included, for example, the selection of monitoring sites and the collection of moss samples, results on metal pollution from moss monitoring in Bavaria and the analysis of halogenated flame retardants in tree samples from the Environmental Specimen Bank programme.The Environmental Monitoring working group is jointly led by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Winfried Schröder (University of Vechta) and Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the scheduled election of the new head of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group could not be held 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 held as a postal vote. Further information on the working group meetings held and on the Environmental Monitoring Working Group in general can be obtained via the e-mail contact provided on this page (see box on the right).Two meetings of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group were held in 2019. At the meeting in May 2019, the topic of "biotope monitoring" was discussed. While one presentation focussed on fish monitoring to monitor priority substances of the Water Framework Directive, another presentation dealt with the retrospective analysis of cyclic methylsiloxanes in fish from the environmental specimen bank. The second meeting in October 2019 focussed on the topic of "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 interested parties.
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; https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10311-018-0788-6) discusses, among other things, findings from the environmental monitoring of rodenticides. The December 2018 meeting, at which scientists from the UBA, UFZ, TZW Karlsruhe, TU Munich and LfU Bavaria presented the topic of "Persistent, mobile and toxic substances" from various perspectives, resulted in another article: Persistent, mobile and toxic substances in the environment: a spotlight on current research and regulatory activities (Environmental Sciences Europe 2020, 32:5; https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-019-0286-x, open access).In 2020, two more meetings of the Environmental Monitoring Working Group are planned. The first meeting at the end of January will focus on the topic of "Phosphonates in the aquatic environment". For further information on the Environmental Monitoring Working Group, please contact the working group management. The Environmental Monitoring Working Group is jointly chaired by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Winfried Schröder (University of Vechta) and Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen).
The Environmental Monitoring Working Group is jointly chaired by Heinz Rüdel (Fraunhofer IME), Jan Schwarzbauer (RWTH Aachen University) and Winfried Schröder (University of Vechta). In 2018, the members of the working group met for a meeting at which colleagues from UBA, Ufz, TZW Karlsruhe, TU Munich and LfU Bavaria presented the topic of "Persistent, Mobile and Toxic Substances" from various perspectives. The meeting, which took place at the Federal Environment Agency in Berlin, was attended by around 20 working group members and guests. Minutes of the meeting are available on 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 the retrospective analysis of methylsiloxanes in fish from the Environmental Specimen Bank. A further working group meeting is planned for October 2019. Further information on the Environmental Monitoring Working Group is available from the Working Group management.
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