PASSEDOBLE - An innovative approach to combine chemical and biological analysis of hydrophobic organic chemicals in the pore water of marine sediments

Project duration: 2016-2019

Funding: German Research Foundation (DFG; WI1410/10-1, Ho3330/10-1)

Principle investigator at the Goethe University, Department Evolutionary Ecology & Environmental Toxicology (E³T)

• Prof. Dr. Henner Hollert
• Thomas Benjamin Seiler

Project process

• Nora Niehus
• Kendra Majewski (MSc thesis)
• Asya Bekerman (BSc thesis)

Cooperation partners

• Prof. Dr. habil Gesine Witt (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences)

Assessing the bioavailability and effects of hydrophobic organic contaminant (HOC)-mixtures is a challenge in environmental sciences. We developed a combined passive sampling and dosing approach for direct transfer of in-situ sampled mixtures into small-scale bioassays. The principle of passive sampling and dosing is that dissolved HOCs diffuse into or from a polymer (e.g. PDMS) until the thermodynamic equilibrium is reached. We directly introduced passive samplers into a bioassay as a passive dosing phase to transfer the sampled mixture to the medium. As soon as the equilibrium is reached in the medium the native mixture is restored, equalling the in-situ sampled concentrations and composition. Thereby, the effects caused by the actual contamination can be investigated. This approach offers reliable and realistic exposure data for environmental management.