Several scientific initiatives are underway to modernise and advance chemical environmental risk assessment (ERA), supporting the shift from conventional practices toward more mechanistic, integrated, and systems-based approaches. These developments aim to enhance ecological realism, improve predictive capacity, reduce reliance on animal testing, and foster greater alignment across sectors, ultimately contributing to better protection of biodiversity and the environment. Yet, translating these innovative approaches into regulatory practice remains challenging due to fragmented efforts and limited alignment between research and policy. To address this gap, the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC) is fostering structured dialogue and stakeholder engagement to align research and innovation with regulatory needs. Within PARC, a proposed solution is the development of the MIND platform—Map, Integrate, Network, Drive—envisioned as a strategic and collaborative space that connects people, practices, and resources across disciplines and regulatory domains. MIND aims to encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing and integration, gradually connecting fragmented initiatives to build a more integrated and interoperable ERA knowledge ecosystem. By encouraging collaboration, improving data sharing, and enhancing policy relevance, MIND seeks to accelerate the uptake of advanced ERA approaches in regulatory practice, with a particular focus on safeguarding biodiversity. Over time, this may contribute to Europe’s sustainability objectives and the ambitions of the European Green Deal.
Using reclaimed water for crop irrigation is a vital practice to reduce water consumption, but introduces contaminants into soils that may leach to groundwater. Consequently, decision-makers worldwide must assess groundwater contamination risks under a range of site-specific conditions. We present a process-based and user-friendly prediction tool to assess long-term groundwater contamination risk from irrigation with micropollutant-containing waters. The tool condenses outputs from numerical simulations into a simplified Excel interface. A total of 6160 simulations were performed using Hydrus-1D to model coupled water and solute transport in a 2 m soil profile over 50 years. Hydrus-1D has become a standard tool for simulating water and solute fluxes in the vadose zone. Simulations covered 40 combinations of site-specific conditions, including five soil texture classes, two climate regimes (humid and semi-arid), two irrigation strategies (demand-based and all-season), and two plant uptake scenarios (none or passive). For each condition, 154 combinations of sorption coefficients (K d ) and microbial degradation half-lives () were evaluated. Leaching percentages were fitted as a functions of log₁₀-transformed K d and values using a parametric Fourier cosine series, which reproduced simulated outcomes with RMSE < 0.4%. The tool allows for initial, site-adaptable screening of groundwater contamination risks for substances whose fate in soils is sufficiently described by linear sorption and first‑order biodegradation. Practical use requires the selection of site scenarios and reaction parameters; we therefore provide guidance and literature anchors for parameterization and further discuss limitations of the tool (e.g., homogeneous profiles, fixed 2 m depth, free drainage, non-representation of preferential flow).
Mycoviruses have been classified into 35 virus families so far. In addition to numerous mycoviruses with proven fungal or oomycetes hosts, many newly discovered viruses from environmental water and soil samples and various animal or plant specimens exhibit significant similarity to classified mycoviruses, thereby expanding the known sequence space of fungal and related viruses. In this study, we searched for mycoviruses in two environmental water samples that had been collected from the Teltow Canal and the Havel River in Berlin, Germany. Viral sequences with similarity to members of 16 virus families were identified. The most common viruses in our samples were botourmia-like viruses with moderate similarity to members of the genus Ourmiavirus. Notably, 58 of the ourmia-like sequences from the Teltow Canal and Havel River and 10 ourmia-like sequences from other sources exhibited a dicistronic genome layout. The second open reading frame (ORF) of these viruses encoded a putative capsid protein with an S domain that showed little similarity to the structural proteins of the classified ourmiaviruses. The second-largest virus group (59 sequences) was assigned to the order Ghabrivirales, and 13 of these sequences exhibited similarity to members of the suborder Alphatotivirineae (families Orthototiviridae, Pseudototiviridae, Botybirnaviridae, and Chrysoviridae). Thirty-three sequences clustered with members of the suborder Betatotivirineae – three of them with members of the family Artiviridae. Fifteen highly divergent toti-like sequences suggest the need to establish a new higher-order taxon within the order Ghabrivirales. Other virus sequences were assigned to the families Mitoviridae (three unuamitoviruses and 10 highly divergent mitovirus-like sequences), Narnaviridae (five "alphanarnavirus"-like sequences), Amalgaviridae (two zybavirus-like sequences), Hypoviridae (one partial RdRP sequence), and Mymonaviridae (one partial RdRP sequence), and one was not classified (Sclerophthora macrospora B-like virus). Notable results include a clade of highly divergent mitovirus-like sequences with a standard translation code, three narnavirus-like sequences with a reverse-frame ORF, and a clade of four Ghabrivirales-like replicase sequences that were found to have numerous termination codons regardless of which translation table was used.
Coastal regions are estimated to contribute with up to 1 % to the global atmospheric methane (CH4) budget. However, these emissions remain highly uncertain due to strong spatial and temporal variability. Anthropogenic activities in coastal waters, such as sand mining and beach nourishment, have not yet been investigated or included in the calculation of the resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1984, regular beach nourishment has been carried out every summer on the west coast of the island of Sylt (North Sea, Germany). During this process, dredging vessels extract a mixture of sand and water from the seabed of a spatially confined area (Westerland II), situated approximately 8 km off the coast and deposit the material on the western beach and foreshore of Sylt. High resolution measurements of CH4 in ambient air at the coastal atmospheric station Westerland (Sylt, Germany) show CH4 spikes of up to 400 ppb above background concentrations. These spikes occurred mainly during summer season, during low tide and under westerly wind conditions (from the sand dredging area). To investigate the origin of the observed atmospheric CH4 spikes, combined in-situ measurements of dissolved and atmospheric CH4 together with water sampling, were performed on board the research vessel RV Mya II (AWI, Alfred-Wegener-Institute) along a coastal transect from Sylt to the Westerland II dredging site. In the vicinity of the dredging site, elevated CH4 concentrations were detected both in ambient air (400–500 ppb above background reaching up to 2450 ppb) and in surface and bottom waters (69–90 nmol L−1). This resulted in a mean diffusive flux of 45 ± 47 µmol m−2 d−1 with a maximum value of 340 µmol m−2 d−1 in the dredging area, in contrast to a diffusive flux of 3.0 ± 3.6 µmol m−2 d−1 during the transit. Our observations demonstrate significantly higher CH4 concentrations and fluxes in both the atmosphere and the water column above the sand dredging site, compared to the areas outside the dredging activities. Furthermore, the isotopic composition of dissolved CH4 within the dredging site, characterized by more negative stable carbon and hydrogen isotope values, point to a microbial source of the excess CH4.
This conference summary proposes general goals and associated actions for a collaborative effort amongst European countries to address the problem of soil contamination by perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). It reflects the discussions during the international conference “PFAS in soil – forever pollution, forever concern?” taking place in Berlin/Germany on 25th and 26th of March 2025. The five general goals derived from the discussions suggest to: (i) Strictly prevent future PFAS immissions into soils, (ii) Systematically identify PFAS-contaminated sites, (iii) Provide a powerful fit-for-routine chemical analysis of PFAS in soil, (iv) Establish effective management strategies for PFAS-contaminated sites and (v) Minimize human PFAS exposure via soil (food, feed, drinking water, direct contact).
