Field-Based Analytical Techniques for Aquatic Environmental Monitoring

There is a growing need for rapid and reliable but relatively low cost techniques that can be remotely deployed to provide high quality environmental data. This paper describes the use of flow injection (FI) based instrumentation for aquatic environmental monitoring. FI techniques now impact on a wide cross section of analytical chemistry activities, providing imaginative and practical solutions to challenging analytical problems and contributing to the improvement of data quality. Two specific applications are described. The first is the use of flow injection with spectrophotometric detection (FI-SPEC) for the determination of nitrogen and phosphorus species in catchments, estauries and sediments in order to investigate the impact of nutrients on water quality and provide decision support systems for catchment management. The second is the use of flow injection with chemiluminescence detectin (FI-CL) for the determination of micronutrients (particularly iron) in remote, open ocean environments. As a rate limiting nutrient, iron plays a key role in ocean productivity and climate change. The importance of 'clean' analytical protocols in order to provide high quality environmental data are also cosidere

Emerging organic contaminants in groundwater

Emerging organic contaminants (ECs) are compounds now being found in groundwater from agricultural, urban sources that were previously not detectable, or thought to be significant. ECs include pesticides and degradates, pharmaceuticals, industrial compounds, personal care products, fragrances, water treatment by-products, flame retardants and surfactants, as well as ‘life-style’ compounds such as caffeine and nicotine. ECs may have adverse effects on aquatic ecosystems and human health. Frequently detected ECs include the anti-epileptic drug carbamazepine, the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole, the anti-inflammatories ibuprofen and diclofenac, and caffeine, as well as pesticide degradates. This means there will be challenges in the future in order to address these ECs and to minimise their impact on drinking water and ecosystems. In the coming decades, more ECs are likely to have environmental standards defined, and therefore a better understanding of environmental behaviour remains a priority