Federica Persico 1, Tracey Temple 1, Frederic Coulon 2 & Melissa Ladyman 1
1 Cranfield University, Centre for Defence Chemistry, Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham, SN6 8LA, UK
2 Cranfield University, School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield, MK43 0AL, UK
Emerging contaminants (ECs)comprise substances with unknown behaviour and consequences in the environment. Every year, around 80,000 new synthetic contaminants, derived from manufacturing processes or industrial waste, are released into the environment. Generally, studies focus their effort on understanding toxicity to humans derived from this type of contamination, overlooking environmental impact especially to the soil. Soil provides multiple important functions, such as provision of food and raw materials, a platform for urban development and human wellbeing and a filtering and transforming media for water, nutrients, and carbon. All these characteristics work together to ensure that the system functions efficiently as a living system.This functionality translates to soil health. Therefore, the aim of this project is to evaluate the environmental consequences of different ECs (pharmaceuticals, explosives, pesticides and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid [PFOS]) discharged to the environment and the consequences on soil health.The key aspect is the contaminant pathway and the effects on both contaminant and soil overtime.Self-contained outdoor and indoor areas will be planted with floraindigenous to the UK, these will be observed and tested for a minimum of two years. Leachate and plants will be analysed for the selected ECs, plant growth monitored by comparison to several control beds and soil characteristics (e.g. pH, nutrients, oxygen), regularly tested. This will provide better understanding of the environmental consequences that ECs have on soil and how they affect the growing capacity of vegetation indigenous to the UK. In addition, results from this project will support future research in developing proactive risk assessment strategies for soil health.