Arsenic methylation and biovolatilization in soils from Ticino, Jura and Valais, Switzerland

• Grant number: 18/02281-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: June 20, 2018
• End date: October 19, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Bruno Lemos Batista
• Grantee: Fabiana Roberta Segura
• Supervisor: Adrien Mestrot
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Bern, Switzerland
• Associated to the scholarship: 15/06674-9 - Arsenic and rice: monitoring and studies of bioremediation for food safety, BP.DD

Abstract

Arsenic contamination in the environment is an issue of global concern, since its compounds (inorganic, organic or volatile arsenic) represents a risk for human health. In several regions of the world, including in Switzerland, ground waters and soils can contain naturally high concentration of arsenic. In Switzerland, this is due to the composition of rocks (Jura region, Malcanton, in Ticino and in Salanfe Lake in Valais). There are much information of these environmental matrixes in matter of total arsenic, but few is published about biovolatilization of arsenic and volatile arsenical emanations. Therefore, in the present project proposal, the aim is to sample volatile arsenical in the field in Jura, Malcanton and Salanfe, correlating arsenical compounds emanation with geochemical parameter such as pH, redox potential and organic matter in porewater. Besides it, microcosms experiments will be carried out in laboratory, to study the influence of variation of organic matter content and temperature on volatile arsenical compounds. (AU)