SFB 1253:  Catchments as Reactors: Metabolism of Pollutants on the Landscape Scale (CAMPOS)

• Subject Area: Geosciences ; Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281741268

The fate and behavior of anthropogenic pollutants on the landscape scale is one of the greatest challenges in environmental sciences. The past decade of research has highlighted that pollutant transformation rates determined in laboratory experiments are often in stark contrast with rates documented in natural systems. This disparity stems from our incomplete knowledge of the relevant processes governing pollutant turnover on the catchment scale. In CAMPOS we have hypothesized that processes become effective in the field which are elusive on the laboratory scale. While laboratory research may miss slow but essential processes, conventional monitoring campaigns in the field are hampered by the dynamics of hydrology that triggers shifts of biogeochemical gradients at which significant pollutant transformations occur. The major goal of CAMPOS is to predict future trends in soil and water quality as a function of changing land use and climatic conditions. We have identified reactive landscape elements and quantified process dynamics with detailed field studies on biogeochemical pollutant transformations at high resolution. Towards this end we have combined novel analytical and sensing techniques (e.g., compound-specific isotope analysis, non-target screening, bioanalysis, in-situ sensors, ‚omics’-technologies, and field scale experiments with labelled substances), and developed stochastic modeling methods. Each project defined within CAMPOS merges expertise from different disciplines needed to break new ground in understanding the persistence and ultimate fate of pollutants in nature. The approach to study relevant landscape elements has proven successful and will also be applied in CAMPOS phase II. The studied landscape elements are rivers (P1), as the big integrators of pollutant fluxes in landscapes; subcatchments (P2) of lower order streams characterized by different land uses and mainly exporting agrochemicals; floodplains (P3/P4) typically filled by Quaternary sediments and containing shallow aquifers which are very vulnerable to pollution; fractured aquifers (P5) which are able to store pollutants in the rock matrix for decades and centuries due to large residence times; and soils (P6),which receive direct input of atmospheric pollutants and agrochemicals. A stochastic Modeling Framework (P7) accounting for all sources of uncertainty has been developed in the first phase and will be extended to reactive transport on the landscape scale in the second phase. Further support to CAMPOS is provided by a Data Infrastructure (INF) project, the Experimental and Modeling Support projects (S1, S2) and the Central Administrative (Z) project.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

• INF - Data Infrastructure and Data Communication Environment (Project Heads Grathwohl, Peter ;  Walter, Thomas )
• P01 - Assessing Pollutant Turnover in Rivers by Target, Non-Target, and Toxicity Analysis (Project Heads Escher, Beate ;  Schwientek, Marc ;  Zarfl, Christiane ;  Zwiener, Christian )
• P02 - Pollutant Turnover in the Groundwater - Stream Transition Zone of Contrasting Lower-Order Sub-Catchments (Project Heads Elsner, Martin ;  Fleckenstein, Jan ;  Lüders, Tillmann ;  Schwientek, Marc )
• P03 - Structural Controls of the Hydrological Functioning of a Floodplain (Project Heads Cirpka, Olaf A. ;  Dietrich, Peter ;  Leven, Carsten )
• P04 - Floodplain Biochemistry - Redox Buffering and Contaminant Fate in Waterlogged Sediments (Project Heads Griebler, Christian ;  Haderlein, Stefan ;  Huhn, Carolin ;  Kappler, Andreas ;  Orsetti, Silvia )
• P05 - Fractured Aquifers - Pollutant Transformations at the Groundwater - Rock Matrix Interface (Project Heads Grathwohl, Peter ;  Kappler, Andreas ;  Kleindienst, Ph.D., Sara )
• P06 - Controls for the Fate of Agrochemicals in Soils (Project Heads Grathwohl, Peter ;  Kandeler, Ellen ;  Pagel, Holger ;  Poll, Christian ;  Streck, Thilo )
• P07 - Stochastic Modeling Framework of Catchment-Scale Reactive Transport (Project Heads Cirpka, Olaf A. ;  Nowak, Wolfgang ;  Streck, Thilo )
• P08 - Conceptual Uncertainty, Model Legitimacy, and Optimization of Data Acquisition Strategies (Project Heads Cirpka, Olaf A. ;  Nowak, Wolfgang )
• S01 - Site Investigation and Environmental Analysis (Project Heads Dietrich, Peter ;  Leven, Carsten ;  Zwiener, Christian )
• S02 - Basic Modeling and Data Services (Project Heads Cirpka, Olaf A. ;  Streck, Thilo )
• Z - Coordination - Central Tasks of the CRC (Project Head Grathwohl, Peter )

• Applicant Institution: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
• Participating University: Universität Hohenheim; Universität Stuttgart
• Participating Institution: Helmholtz Zentrum München; Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt; Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ)
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Peter Grathwohl