Description: 

Pesticides are organic contaminants of particular interest since they are applied deliberately and in considerable amounts to soils used for food crop production and are distributed within nearly all compartments of the environment. Soils and sediments are complex matrices and the major sinks for these compounds. Pesticides entering soil or sediment undergo turnover processes and can be volatilized, degraded abiotically or biotically, taken up by living organisms or leached to the groundwater.

Your tasks:

• Biodegradation experiments with deuterium labeled pesticide (e.g. 2,4-D or glyphosate) in a reference soil and water-sediment
• Determination of mass balance of deuterated pesticide in soil and water-sediment
• Measurement of deuterium incorporation into microbial biomass (e.g. fatty acids)
• Data analysis and interpretation of results

Your profile:

• Bachelor in Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Science, Biotechnology or related disciplin
• highly motivated, independent and reliably working
• good command of English