Research Interests

Soils

• Investigating the influences of soil dynamic processes and chemical speciation on metal uptake by plants.
• Using a more mechanistically based soil nutrient assessment system to improve the prediction of plant nutrient requirements. (collaboration with CSIRO)
• Developing and applying dynamic models to understand DGT-soil and plant-soil interactions.
• Investigating the effect of mixtures of potentially toxic metals on earthworms using both experimental and modeling approaches. (collaboration with CEH)
• New methods for integrated risk assessment of cumulative stressors by using DGT in pseudo-steady state and depletion modes.

Sediments

• Understanding the micro-heterogeneity of trace elements in sediments through 2D high resolution measurements using DGT and DET techniques
• Developing and applying a 3D transport, reaction and dynamic model to understand the biogeochemical processes of trace metals in sediments.

Waters

• Investigating the importance of the speciation and dissociation kinetics of trace metals in natural waters using novel in situ measurements.
• Event-triggered passive sampling for environmental regulatory monitoring of metals, nutrients and radionuclides.
• www.es.lancs.ac.uk/wdgroup/members/zhang.htm‎