AgriAs – Evaluation and Management of Arsenic Contamination in Agricultural Soil and Water

Introduction

   

The overall goal of AgriAs was to provide the European Union with reliable data on the existing risks of As exposure through agriculture, a complete summary of existing tools available for As remediation as well as an array of tools for ecotoxicity and bioavailability assessment. We used national and European databases, developed and tested technologies aiming to solve problems and carried out risk monitoring. A particular attention was paid to the demonstration and dissemination phase in close cooperation with stakeholders.

The main objectives of the project included:

• To address water and soil pollution by As highlighting the needs for sustainable development and healthy food chain,
• To summarize national and European databases to assess the scale of As contamination in European agricultural soils and water,
• To develop recommendations/guidelines for sustainable management of As risk together with stakeholders,
• To demonstrate As removal technology at target sites and to assess its technological and economic feasibility,
• To apply biological tools in different contexts to assess environmental quality and to manage ecological, environmental and human risks,
• To disseminate the results of the project to stakeholders

Publications

Please see the Layman’s report for the main results.

The main international journal papers published so far:

• Journal of Hazardous Materials: ‘Risk management for arsenic in agricultural soil-water systems: lessons learned from case studies in Europe’ Loukola-Ruskeeniemi et al. 2022. J. Hazard. Mater. 424, 124677. 
• Journal of Geochemical Exploration: ‘Arsenic in agro-ecosystems under anthropogenic pressure in Germany and France compared to a geogenic As region in Finland’ Tarvainen et al. 2020. J. Geochem. Explor. 217, 106606.
• Journal of Hazardous Materials: ‘Influence of agricultural amendments on the biogeochemistry and phytotoxicity of arsenic in a soil polluted by the destruction of arsenic-containing shells.’ Battaglia-Brunet et al. 2021. J. Hazard. Mater. 409 (5), 124580.

       

AgriAs was co-funded by the EU and Academy of Finland, L’Agence nationale de la recherche, Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft and Forskningsrådet FORMAS under the ERA-NET Cofund WaterWorks2015 Call. This ERA-NET is an integral part of the 2016 Joint Activities developed by the Water Challenges for a Changing World Joint Programme Initiative (Water JPI).

 

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