Title: Retroaction of geochemical perturbations and critical zone media reactivity on trace elements speciation and transport parameters (C07).
Funding body + grant number: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation), Project number 218627073
Duration: July 2021 - June 2025
Project leader: Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schäfer
Personnel in charge: Ruth Ewouame
Associated researcher: Dr. Dirk Merten
Coordinating/Cooperation: Collaborative Research Centre 1076 AquaDiva.
Link to the larger project webpage: https://www.aquadiva.uni-jena.de/ en
Description:
Groundwaters are threatened by different events such as lands use, extreme weather events (heavy rains, snow melt), especially with the climate change. The fluid infiltration during weather events is an important way for the transport of solutes, colloids, and nanoparticles from the surface to the subsurface (groundwater). This is of high importance since clay nanoparticles are known as great adsorbers of metallic pollutants due to their negative surface charge and their large specific surface.
Our principal research aim is to investigate the stability and the mobility of Clay nanoparticles by using Engineered Clay Nanoparticles (Zn-Ni Montmorillonite) in the Hainich CZE and the SESO wells water, and to investigate the role of extreme weather events (snow melt, heavy rains) and local geology in the mobility of the clay nanoparticles and associated-trace metals speciation.
