Environmental context. Pesticides and other contaminants released by agricultural activities negatively impact aquatic biota and water quality, but are not always measured. The Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) is among the most suitable tools for identifying pesticides and other organic compounds in water bodies. However, determination of a mean concentration (over the duration of the deployment) is still a significant challenge, which is addressed in the present work using field observations and a computational model.

Environmental context. Organic matter (OM) biodegradation plays a key role as it is one of the main processes causing changes in the amount, composition and properties of OM in sediment. However, a complete understanding of its processes and mechanisms is still not reached. In this study, we aim to explore the chemical composition changes during biodegradation and identify underlying processes.

Environmental context. Everyone is familiar with the earth odour that comes from digging in the soil. We measured the chemicals comprising this odour and studied how the environment influences how much of these chemicals are released from disturbed soils. Understanding what conditions affect emission of these compounds from soils could provide new technologies for remotely assessing soil health and what people are doing to soils.