Speaker
Description
The growing presence of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in aquatic environments poses a significant challenge for environmental protection and sustainable agriculture. This issue is particularly critical in intensively agricultural regions where surface water is widely used for irrigation, such as the Danube-Tisa-Danube (DTD) hydro-system in Vojvodina, northern Serbia. Despite increasing awareness and regulatory efforts at the European level, significant knowledge gaps remain regarding the occurrence, distribution, and prioritisation of CECs in complex agro-environmental systems.
Within the EnviLife project, a multidisciplinary framework has been developed to detect and prioritise CECs in surface water and arable soil. A central component of this framework is the application of wide-scope high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), integrating suspect screening with target analysis to achieve comprehensive chemical characterisation and reliable quantification of prioritised contaminants in environmental samples.
This analytical approach is further supported by an advanced data processing workflow, a prioritisation strategy, and the development of predictive models based on machine learning and environmental datasets. The resulting data enable the formulation of a region-specific watch list of CECs, supporting the monitoring of prioritised compounds and improving understanding of potential contaminant transfer pathways between water and soil.
The proposed framework supports the design of future monitoring strategies and advances understanding of CEC occurrence in the DTD hydro-system. While developed for a specific hydro-system, the approach and findings are broadly applicable to other agro-environmental systems facing similar contamination pressures.