| SPECIAL
SESSION
The Second IASTED International Conference on
ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGY IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD
~ATEF 2006~
February
6-8, 2006
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
“Bioremediation
of Contaminated Soils and Groundwater – Microbial
Diversity and Risk Assessment”
Dr.
Hermann J. Heipieper
UFZ Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany
hermann.heipieper@ufz.de
Microbial degradation
is thought to be an ultimate sink of organic contaminants
in the environment. One major problem of modern Environmental
Microbiology is the exact identification and quantification
of the microbial processes that are responsible for the
degradation of pollutants in contaminated sites. Hereby,
tracer techniques using 13C labelled compounds as well as
stable isotope fractionation approaches can function as
tools for a quantitative and qualitative elucidation of
microbial processes at polluted sites. In combination with
stable isotope tracers, microbial lipids can also function
as biomarkers for a quantitative and qualitative analysis
of the key-players responsible for bioremediation. Additionally,
the characterisation of in situ biodegradation
in contaminated aquifers is a key factor to evaluate bioremediation
strategies, in particular for remediation by natural attenuation
processes. Here, microbiologically mediated stable isotope
fractionation processes can be applied to characterise in
situ biodegradation, which may be integrated into groundwater
risk assessment approaches. Especially in highly contaminated
environments many xenobiotic compounds are also very toxic
to the degrading micro-organisms. This chemical toxicity
has also to be taken into consideration for a successful
bioremediation strategy.
This special
session will focus on strategies for the assessment and
monitoring of bioremediation of contaminated soils and water.
Major aspects will be the development of methods for a quantitative
and qualitative monitoring of the micro-organisms responsible
for degradation of pollutants in contaminated sites. Here,
next to modern tracer strategies, molecular biological tools
as well as the application of microbial lipids as biomarkers
shall be discussed.
Dr. Hermann
J. Heipieper, senior researcher in the department
of bioremediation of the German national centre for environmental
research (UFZ), has been working on the aerobic biodegradation
of xenobiotics, mainly by the bacterial genus Pseudomonas,
and on the bacterial adaptation, at the level of their membranes,
to different kinds of stresses. He was co-¬ordinator
of a RTD project within the 5th Framework of the EU-commission
entitled: “Strategies to accelerate the productive
biodegradation of several herbicides under environmental
stress conditions” (HERBICBIOREM) and participant
of several other EU-projects. He is member of the Editorial
Board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and is frequent
reviewer for all leading journals in the field of microbiology
and environmental biotechnology.
Paper submissions
should be made directly to the special session organizer
at hermann.heipieper@ufz.de,
deadline is 15 October 2005.
| IMPORTANT
DEADLINES |
| Submissions
due |
October
15, 2005 |
| Notification
of acceptance |
November
1, 2005 |
| Camera-ready
manuscripts due |
December
1, 2005 |
| Registration
Deadline |
December
8, 2005 |
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