The Full Story
Environmental Pollution Monitoring
Plastic pollution is of major concern in China and globally. We are developing new detection methods and are conducting field experiments to understand effects on the environment.
Method development and ecosystem analysis
Conventional agricultural practices rely heavily on agrochemicals leading to negative effects on human health and the environment. Besides fertilizer and pesticide pollution, China is the main user of agricultural plastic foils that has led to substantial soil contamination. While plastic pollution has been identified as a major threat to aquatic environments, the effects of plastics on agricultural systems are only slowly beginning to emerge. Part of the problem is that effective detection of microplastics is still difficult. We are developing new plastic detection methods in the evironment and testing plastic pollution in a holistic ecosystem approach.
This work is coordinated by Dr. Xueqing He
Where we are and where we are heading
We are using quantitative methods in the lab and semi field experiments to determine interaction toxicity of plastics with other pollutants and test our newly developed methods.
