Fungi can tidy up nanoplastics form their surrounding! We recently found that nanoplastics stick to hyphae of certain fungi. You wonder if that is common, and how much plastics they can clean out in groundwater ecosystems or soil water environments? Me too! But not just us, also the scientific community is in urgent need to know more about the transport mechanisms of nanoplastic in soils and groundwater environments. This will help to understand the impact of nanoplastic to terrestrial environments. Such knowledge can eventually be used to protect drinking water resources from contamination. And fungi are a big part of those environments, too.
Project 1: groundwater environments:
Study the interaction between nanoplastic and a commonly found fungal group of Saprotrophs (Trichoderma) in mineral soil and groundwater aquifers analogs.
You will study this interaction in batch adsorption studies, in microfluidic chips or sediment transport columns. mimicking groundwater aquifer environments. As aquifer material analogs we use glass beads, quartz sand, Goethite and Kaolinite.
Project 2: soil environments:
Study the interaction between nanoplastic and an Ectomycorrhizal fungi (Hebeloma), which is part of the upper soil layers in an soil analog.
You will study this interaction in batch adsorption studies, in microfluidic chips or sediment transport columns. mimicking shallow soil environments. As soil analog material we use glass beads, quartz sand, Goethite and Kaolinite.
Training includes:
Fungal microbiology, nanoparticle transport, absorbance/ fluorescence spectroscopy/ nanoparticle characterization methods (NTA/DLS/Zetapotential), confocal microscopy, microfluidic chips, contaminant tracer tests
What you know when you are done:
- Basics in contaminant transport in groundwater systems
- Inspiration for fungal remediation techniques
- Experience in an interdisciplinary method toolbox to assess nanoscale transport processes (particles, pathogens, solute transport)
- You could work on securing clean drinking water for future generations!
Are you interested?
Just contact me by email
You will be supervised by me, Sascha Müller and Edith Hammer.
sascha.muller@biol.lu,se