Supervisors and collaborators:
Duration: 2011-2014
Funding: 7th Framework Programme of the European Union (project: CSI: ENVIRONMENT).
Research questions
The PhD project deals with compound specific isotope analysis (CSIA) of agrochemicals at the catchment scale.
CSIA serves as an indicator for the transformation of a contaminant and allows quantifying the extent of in-situ degradation.
Additionally, it enables to assess the contribution of different pollution sources to a contaminated sample.
The main objectives of the PhD project are to:
- Examine the feasibility and benefits of CSIA in river monitoring with the use of the physically-based hydrological model HydroGeoSphere
- Extend the mathematical model of CSIA to allow for source partitioning based on isotope signatures under the presence of in-situ degradation
Publications
- Lutz, S.R. (2015). Isotopic Fingerprints of Organic Pollutants. Quantifying sources and sinks of organic pollutants with isotope analysis from aquifer to catchment scale. PhD Thesis, VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 146 p.
- Lutz, S. R.; Van Breukelen, B. M. (2014) Combined Source Apportionment and Degradation Quantification of Organic Pollutants with CSIA: 1. Model Derivation. Environmental Science & Technology 48, (11), 6220-6228.
- Lutz, S. R.; Van Breukelen, B. M. (2014) Combined Source Apportionment and Degradation Quantification of Organic Pollutants with CSIA: 2. Model Validation and Application. Environmental Science & Technology 48, (11), 6229-6236.
- Lutz, S. R., van Meerveld, H. J., Waterloo, M. J., Broers, H. P., and van Breukelen, B. M. (2013) A model-based assessment of the potential use of compound-specific stable isotope analysis in river monitoring of diffuse pesticide pollution, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 4505-4524, doi:10.5194/hess-17-4505-2013.
