Elemental speciation analyses are increasingly recognised as key to understanding the behaviour of pollutants in the aquatic and terrestrial environments. Models that are able to predict elemental reactivity, bioavailability and transport are needed to better assess short and long-term risks from trace elements in the environment. As yet, geochemical models are limited in the extent to which they incorporate the formation kinetics and transport properties of metal and radionuclide complexes, and colloidal associations, in a fully mechanistic way. We propose a meeting which brings together geochemists, aquatic chemists, experts in speciation, mineralogists, biologists, ecologists, toxicologists and engineers to discuss recent progress in this field and identify avenues for future research and collaboration. The meeting will aim to create channels of collaboration between scientific research institutes, Universities, regulatory bodies and industries interested in reducing metal contamination in the environment. In addition, we propose a one day training on selected speciation packages at the beginning of this meeting.
The main themes of the meeting are:
- Modern Analytical techniques for measuring complex species in aqueous and terrestrial environments (e.g. DGT, DMT, radio-and stable-tracer techniques, stripping voltammetry, etc.)
- Models describing metal ion binding (e.g. WHAM, CD-MUSIC, NICA-DONNAN) by simple ligands, macromolecules (e.g. Humic acid), micro-particles and nano-colloids .
- Prediction of radionuclide speciation in the environment
- Elemental Speciation in extreme geochemical environments and role of microbial activity.
- Risk assessment of hazardous elements in natural and engineering systems
- Integrated Studies: speciation analysis and reactivity of solid surfaces
