Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Small organic molecules play an important role on ecosystems function. For instance, the acquisition of micronutrients (i.e. trace metals) by bacteria and plants is critical to the cycling of major nutrient such as nitrogen and the production of biomass. This acquisition of metal often rely on the release of small organic molecules (metal chelating agents) that actively recruit metal of interest by competing with natural metal-complexes in soil. Besides these small organic molecules that are beneficial to the biosphere, other human made small organic molecules, such as antibiotics and pesticides, can have a negative impact on ecosystems health. The fate and impact of these organic contaminants in soils remain poorly understood. Our multidisciplinary research team is composed of seven researchers from Chemistry, Biology and Environmental Engineering. We develop innovative research on small organic molecule dynamics in the environment, including (i) the role small organic ligands on trace metal menagment by plant-bacteria symbioses, (ii) the mobility and bioavailability of organic contaminants (OCs) in soils and sediments, (iii) the interaction between OCs and plant root microorganisms, (iv) the impact of insects contaminated with OCs on swallow populations and (v) the link between the presence of OCs in animal tissues and carcinogenesis. Our research rely on the extraction of small organic molecules that are often tightly bound to these complex environmental matrices (e.g. soil, tissues). Traditional extraction methods, used for liquid matrices, fail short to achieve the necessary efficiency required to extract these molecules of interest. The requested equipment composed of a pressurized liquid extractor is the current state-of-the-art approach for small organic molecules extraction from recalcitrant and complex environmental matrices. This equipment is very versatile allowing the extraction of various class of compounds from a wide array of solid matrices. This versatility is indispensable to support our multidisciplinary research. The requested equipment comes with high throughput capability indispensable to support the large amount of samples generated by our research. The benefice of our research to Canada are numerous; Our work on the role of small organic molecules on metal acquisition by bacteria-plant symbioses will contribute to improve biomass production and allow further development in phytoextraction and revegetation of contaminated sites. Our research on the environmental fate of OCs will provide the fundamental knowledge required to develop sustainable strategies to protect critical ecosystem services such as water supply and soil quality, plant production. It will also contribute to better evaluate the impact of OCs on wildlife and humans helping decision makers implementing appropriated legislations.