Contamination of European aquatic ecosystems by organofluorine pollutants: levels and driving factors of bioaccumulation in the trophic web

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Klefoth
• Subject Area: Animal Physiology and Biochemistry ; Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 531602498

Freshwaters are the most affected ecosystems by anthropogenic pollutants worldwide. The main goal of the proposed project will be to unravel the fate of classical and new organofluorine pollutants in aquatic ecosystems of Europe and to assess the driving factors of their accumulation in fish. Using advanced analytical technics, several tens of anthropogenic chemicals will be determined across the aquatic food web in different lotic and lentic localities. Physiological assessment together with chemical analysis of pollutants in various biota (from plankton to top predators) and trophic position determined using stable isotope analysis will also bring light to the biomagnification in the food chain and will provide needed data for human health risk assessment. Moreover, preselected localities will be representing various conditions to discover driving factors of bioaccumulation of organofluorine contaminants. Finally, the redundancy analysis of such a large set of collected data will point out the most relevant factors of selected pollutants transport in the environment and food web.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Czech Republic
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Tomas Cajthaml, Ph.D.; Lukas Vejrik, Ph.D.