Research for the Environment

The department's primary goal is to develop and offer a wide range of analytical methods, and to adapt them to problems from all areas of environmental research at the UFZ, so that sample materials from various parts of the environmental compartments can be reliably analysed. The broad nature of the department's work means it is integrated into various research projects pursued by the other research and interdisciplinary departments.

Scientifically based sampling techniques, mobile on-site analysis and sensitive laboratory analysis provide reliable data to assess problems relevant to environmental and human toxicology.

The analytical-methodical research of the department is focused on problems of distribution, migration and metabolisation of pollutants and elucidation cause-effect mechanisms. The development and improvement of reliable methods for the identification, structural characterisation and quantification of trace concentrations of environmentally relevant substances, especially heavy metals and their species, radionuclides, and organic and organometallic compounds is subject of the research tasks. Investigastions are performed in air, aquatic systems, soil, rocks, plant material and human-medicine samples.