Objective
Mercury (Hg) is in the form of monomethylmercury (MeHg) a biological neurotoxin, harmful to the wildlife and to humans. MeHg species is produced from Hg2+ by natural processes occurring within the water bodies. MeHg can also be degraded by natural processes; therefore, the net MeHg production arise form the combination of both kind of processes. The analytical tools to assess these processes consist in the use of labelled Hg in laboratory experiments to trace Hg transformations. One of the factors affecting Hg transformations is its concentration. MeHg production studies performed up to present in the water column are few and limited, due to the limitation of existing techniques in simulating natural levels or real environmental contamination situations that involve levels of Hg2+ from 0.1 to 50 ng.L-1 while most studies in sediments involve unrealistic Hg2+ additions, since Hg concentrations at natural or low contaminated levels range from 10 to 200 ng.g-1 with a bio-available fraction for MeHg production from 0.1 to 10 %. Recent collaboration between the author and the DES of the Jozef Stefan Institute (JSI), Slovenia, showed the feasibility of these studies using the short-lived radiotracer Hg-197 produced out of Hg enriched isotopically in Hg-196, allowing realistic Hg2+ additions to study MeHg production both in the water column and sediments. This project propose the development of analytical techniques to study de-methylation processes in water and sediments, by using traced MeHg in laboratory experiments. These processes are currently assesed using either C-14 and Hg-203 radiotracers, but the use of Hg-197 radiotracer will allow much lower MeHg additions, and hence realistic simulations of natural de-methylation processes. The project also consider the application of the Hg-197 radiotracer in the evaluation of MeHg production, including reduction of Hg2+ to Hg0, in different real situations in environmental studies on going in the DES of the JSI.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-2-IIF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.