Cycling of substances in the environment, mass balances, modelling of environmental processes and risk assessment

"Cycling of substances in environment" deals with environmental analytical chemistry, biological and chemical cycles, radiochemistry and radioecology. Current information about levels and state of certain substance in environment is investigated using analytical and biological analysis. Performing these analyses over time allows us to trace the transport and fate of these compounds in environment (monitoring). Substances that are subject to our analyses are of natural or anthropogenic origin. When these activities are supplemented with studies of "mass balances", analytical chemistry gains technological/engineering angle while "modelling of environmental processes and risk assessment" connects natural sciences to environmental policy and goals of society. The aim of this program is to acquire high level of understanding and researcher's perception regarding environmental studies. This will allow them to contribute to finding best possible way for society to develop and improve quality of life. Results of this research program will be applied as support for decision making and planing environmental and research policy.

In investigations of the toxicity and cycling of elements in the environment it is necessary to know not only total element concentration, but also the concentration of its species. The research programme group followed the world’s trends in this area. We were between the first that before 25 years began to develop analytical procedures for speciation of elements. In this area the researchers are between the top scientists worldwide, what is evident from numerous publications in scientific journals and citations, as well as through collaboration in international projects. The research programme focuses on the investigation of global water cycle, biogeochemical cycles and fluxes of nutrient and of the response of natural systems to the anthropogenic activities directly contributes to the development of basic sciences, such as geology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, forest ecology, environmental analytical chemistry etc. and applied research (e.g. food safety, security and traceability). Combination of different approaches, introduction of new and well established methods and techniques in environmental research and model calculation will enable a better insight into the past and present functioning of environmental systems, especially in light of environmental change and elaboration of adaptation strategies. Introduction and critical evaluation of combined geochemical and biomarkers of environmental change in different spatial and time scales represent a particular contribution to the Science. The Programme will combine the current research skills and apply them to the development of new analytical procedures for the determination of new emerging pollutants and classical persistent compounds in environmental samples, the optimization and implementation of novel molecular tools to explore the phylogenetic composition and diversity of microbial consortia responsible for the degradation of selected organic pollutants, and toxicity testing. This interdisciplinary approach will bring together knowledge in the fields of chemistry and biology what will contribute to an overall understanding of organic contaminants impact on the environment. We will develop, optimize and implement analytical procedures to determine new emerging contaminants residues and their stable metabolites in waste and environmental waters and assess the extent of pollution in Slovene surface and waste waters. Identification of stable metabolites is a new developing research area where expert knowledge and "state-of-the-art" instrumentation are needed, both available at JSI. There has been a big increase lately in determination of various natural and man-made radionuclides in different samples as well as the development of radiochemical procedures for the determination of trace elements in food and drinking water. The analyses are difficult, time consuming and challenging due to similar chemical behaviour of certain actinides. Results of radon and aerosol particles will increase our general knowledge on formation, physico-chemical properties and both numerical concentration and size distribution of non-radioactive nano aerosols.

The topics of the proposed programme are in line with the Slovenian Smart Specialization Strategy since they build a knowledge base for sustainable development, environmental and risk management, management of natural resources and development of environmental technologies. The proposed research programme is also harmonized with the main priorities of the EU - sustainable use and management of natural resources and environment and development of environmental technologies. It also represents support to the elaboration and implementation of national and EU environmental legislation. In particular, contributions in the following areas are outlined: 1 - Sustainable exploitation of Slovenia’s water potential: changes in hydrological cycle, particularly the physical alterations of river flows due to natural and anthropogenic influences have a decisive impact on the changes in the cycling of substances, including dangerous and toxic ones. As the water ecosystems are generally considered to be an important natural energy potential for the country the above research is of fundamental importance for science based risk assessment methodologies. 2 - New tools for the pollution prevention and pollution control will be developed. The proposed programme we shall combines measurements of chemical, isotopic and hydrogeochemical parameters which will contribute to better understanding of the environmental processes and development of reliable models. In medium term, this knowledge will contribute to the improvements of surface waters and quality of drinking groundwater. All these aspects are also important as Slovenia must comply with the EU environmental legislation. 3 – Cutting-edge advances in speciation analysis: complementary and good collaboration of our research group with numerous international leading research groups in the field of chemical speciation and collaboration in international projects enables efficient exchange of new knowledge and incorporation in new environmental and biological studies. 4 – New and emerging contaminants: Further assessment of risks deriving from the presence of new emerging pollutants in the environment will be obtained. However, this topic is not just about the transfer of expert knowledge into a Slovene context but more importantly tackles the subject from an interdisciplinary perspective. We expect our results will overcome institutions borders and impact future legislation amendments at the EU levels. 5 – Sensor technologies: Based on excellence knowledge in environmental analytical chemistry, the programme will intensify collaboration in the area of the development of novel sensor technologies with SMEs and wider within the Eu research platform. 6 – Radiochemistry and radioecology of natural and man made radionuclides using alpha spectrometry and neutron activation analysis is performed mainly by this group. 7 – Increased competitivity of laboratories through standardisation and accreditation of laboratories and methods; the programme group will strenghten its position within the national and European metrology system through participation in EMRP project. In this way we will effort to keep the status of reference laboratory in Slovenia for traceability to the mol. 8 – Food safety and traceability: Advancements in food science in the field of food authentication, food safety and traceability with the use of novel advanced analytical methods and techniques and in collaboration with national food industry is of special economic interest for Slovenia. 9 - Education: The research programme was very active in the past and currently supervise many PhD thesis in the framework of the young researchers programme, EU Marie Skladowska Curie fellows, as well candidates from the industry. Collaboration with major Slovenian Universities and International Postgraduate School Jožef Stefan will therefore remain high in the agenda.