Environmental Challenge — Substance Flows and Pollution

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Many of the chemicals that we often use are toxic to humans and ecosystems or cause environmental problems in other ways. Within this environmental challenge fits research on pollutants, on substances that affect ecosystems in other ways, and greenhouse gases from both natural habitats and society.

We focus on various chemicals that cause problems. Many of the chemicals that we often use every day are toxic to humans and ecosystems. Other substances, such as nutrients and greenhouse gases, are not exactly toxic but can cause major environmental problems in other ways.

Concerns about the large amount of substances that society disseminates and their impact on the environment requires better analytical methods and strengthened monitoring and control, as well as further knowledge about their flows and interaction with organisms. It is also vital to study substances’ natural cycles to understand and prevent environmental problems. Substance emissions are difficult to evaluate on a large scale and methodological development is therefore important.

We also study the biological, chemical and physical processes and cycles. Our research ranges from the molecular to the global scale, and aims to identify the mechanisms that drive biogeochemical cycles and their effects in time and space. We want to create new knowledge that can lead to effective measures.

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Research project

Small bottles in a lab environment

Environmental Challenge – Substance flows and pollution

Many of the chemicals that we use every day are toxic to humans. The concern for these chemicals’ increasing environmental impact requires strengthened monitoring. To  estimate emissions and greenhouse gas balance is another part of this challenge.

Bild på sjö. Picture on a lake

Predicting future methane fluxes from northern lakes (METLAKE)

The aim of the research project is to better quantify and develop models to predict methane emissions from lakes.

A camera for visualizing methane sources

The greenhouse gas methane is more powerful than carbon dioxide and has large effects on the climate. It is not clear where all methane emissions occur and how big they are. This could be changed with a sensitive infra red camera.

Researchers in the field