Fate and effects of contaminants in soils as influence by natural organic material

This paper summarizes the essentials of a symposium held at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology from 16. to 18. September 1996 under the auspices of the international Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Commission on Water and Soil Chemistry and the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Fachgruppe for Umweltchemie und Ökotoxikologie. In recent years processes of interactions between contaminants and physical as well as chemical soil parameters have been intensively studied to achieve advances in the hazard and risk assessment of contaminants in soils. As regards soil organic matter major research areas have been sorption and binding processes. A more recent area includes the influences of natural organic matter (NOM) and the dissolved part (DOM) on mobility, bioavailability and toxic effects of heavy metals and organic contaminants. The role of dissolved natural organic compounds in the field has been identified to be a major one both with respect to the analytical facet of the problem as well as regards modifications in fate and effects of contaminants.