Linking chemical surface water monitoring and pesticide regulation in selected European countries.

The progress in chemical analytics and understanding of pesticide dynamics in surface waters allows establishing robust data on compounds with frequent exceedances of quality standards. The current chemical, temporal, and spatial coverage of the pesticide monitoring campaigns differs strongly between European countries. A questionnaire revealed differences in monitoring strategies in seven selected European countries; Nordic countries prioritize temporal coverage, while others focus on spatial coverage. Chemical coverage has increased, especially for non-polar classes like synthetic pyrethroids. Sweden combines monitoring data with agricultural practices for derived quantities, while the Netherlands emphasizes spatial coverage to trace contamination sources. None of the EU member states currently has established a process for linking chemical surface water monitoring data with regulatory risk assessment, while Switzerland has recently established a legally defined feedback loop. Due to their design and objectives, most strategies do not capture concentration peaks, especially 2-week composite samples, but also grab samples. Nevertheless, for substances that appear problematic in many data sets, the need for action is evident even without harmonization of monitoring programs. Harmonization would be beneficial, however, for cross-national assessment including risk reduction measures.

Photosynthetic proteins for technological applications.

Photosynthetic proteins are a source of biological material well-suited to technological applications. They exhibit light-induced electron transfer across lipid membranes that can be exploited for the construction of photo-optical electrical devices. The structure and function of photosynthetic proteins differ across the photosynthetic evolutionary scale, allowing for their application in a range of technologies. Here we provide a general description of the basic and technical research in this sector and an overview of biochips and biosensors based on photochemical activity that have been developed for the bioassay of pollutants.