Fate and effects

Pollution of the environment requires monitoring and characterisation of the pollutants in the different compartments of the environment (i.e. air, water, soil/sediment, and biota). Research and detailed knowledge of biological effects and fate of the pollutants is important for an assessment of adequate response actions.

In addition to a good understanding of the origin of pollutants and in order to perform assessment of response actions, it is important to gain knowledge on biological effects on relevant organisms and chemical fate and transport in the environment. The nature of pollutants and their distribution and fate in the environment are complex, and require the best available methodology for sampling/monitoring and chemical/biological analyses of all environmental compartments. There is a clear coupling between chemical/biological monitoring and use/development of model tools for assessment of fate and transport of pollutants in the environment. Models are today used in detailed planning of monitoring studies, and similarly, data generated form environmental monitoring is used for a refinement of the models.