This project aims to develop monitoring tools to assess environmental impact invoked by bio-based agriculture, for example changes due to agricultural run-off in adjacent water bodies and sediments or exposure to pesticides. By screening a large set of ditches covering gradients in nutrient exposures biogeochemical indicator genes will be developed based on the GeoChip micro array which will be calibrated against measured sediment physico-chemistry and a number of biogeochemical processes. The aim will be to develop simple QPCR assays which can be used as biogeochemical indicators for pollution of water bodies and sediments.
Other
BE-Basic (Public-Private partnership) and KNAW.
Research team