Separating the effects of partial submergence and soil oxygen demand on plant physiology.

In wetlands, a distinct zonation of plant species composition occurs along moisture gradients, due to differential flooding tolerance of the species involved. However, "flooding" comprises two important, distinct stressors (soil oxygen demand [SOD] and partial submergence) that affect plant survival and growth. To investigate how these two flooding stressors affect plant performance, we executed a factorial experiment (water depth x SOD) for six plant species of nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor conditions, occurring along a moisture gradient in Dutch dune slacks.

Raising groundwater differentially affects mineralization and plant species abundance in dune slacks.

The experience with restoring high water levels (i.e., rewetting) within restoration ecology is limited, and information on changes in soil nutrient supply is scarce.

Heavy metal pollution affects consumption and reproduction of the landsnail Cepaea nemoralis fed on naturally polluted Urtica dioica leaves.

This study is one of the very first that investigates the effects of heavy metal pollution on food consumption and reproduction of terrestrial snails under semi-realistic field conditions. Two experiments were carried out using snails (Cepaea nemoralis) and food (Urtica dioica leaves) from different metal polluted locations and one reference location. The first experiment showed that both polluted and reference snails fed on high-metal leaves from a highly polluted location had significantly lower consumption rates than snails consuming leaves from the reference location.

Biomimetic solid-phase microextraction to predict body residues and toxicity of chemicals that act by narcosis.

A biomimetic extraction technique using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers has been developed for the risk assessment of contaminants with a narcotic mode of action. Our goal is to apply this technique in the future for the prediction of total baseline toxicity of environmental water and effluent samples. Validation of this method requires establishing the relationship between contaminant accumulation and toxicity in biota and accumulation in the surrogate solid phase (the SPME fiber coating).