Our modern, open-plan laboratories provide full flexibility for the in-life and analytical phases of environmental fate studies to meet your program needs. Test systems (soils, sediments or waters) can be sourced from sites worldwide, enabling all global requirements to be accommodated. The viability (biomass) of each test system is verified (if applicable) prior to study initiation.
Studies are performed in isolated, flexible flow-through glass systems designed to investigate the breakdown of radiolabelled test items under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The equipment permits the quantitative collection of radiolabelled volatiles, and any combination of liquid- or solid-phase trapping systems can be attached in series to each incubate.
Systems for the collection of reduced labelled volatile products such as 14CH4 are used in anaerobic studies.
Gas and nitrogen analyzers are used for investigating the effect of treatment on the short-term respiration and nitrogen mineralization capacity of soil microflora. The response of both equipment and standard soils is checked annually, and the resultant validation report is available free of charge.
Respirometer equipment is also used to determine microbial activity (biomass) of soils and water/sediment test systems prior to their use in degradation studies. Studies include:
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Aerobic and anaerobic degradation in soil and slurry soil
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Aerobic and anaerobic degradation in sediments and associated surface waters
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Soil adsorption –desorption/mobilty investigations
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Aged and non-aged leaching/mobility studies
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Hydrolytic stability trials at a range of pH values and temperatures
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Photolytic degradation in buffered solution and on soil surfaces
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Degradation of animal health products in manure
Plant and Environmental Metabolism
For animal health products, phytotoxicity tests are conducted in terrestrial crops and non-crop species to determine effects on seed germination, emergence and vegetative vigor.
For more information about our environmental fate studies, contact us at 1.877.CRIVER.1 or askcharlesriver@crl.com.