AZTI presents MONITOOL results at different scientific events during 2020

The work conducted and the knowledge gained along MONITOOL lifetime have been presented by AZTI at four different scientific events. One of them was attended face-to-face and the other three events took place virtually due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

 Maria Jesus Belzunce and Iratxe Menchaca, both researchers from AZTI-Tecnalia (MONITOOL partner in the Basque Country, Spain), have performed a significant dissemination work of the project´s results during last months in the following meetings:

 ICES 2020

Celebrated last March in Lisbon, M.J. Belzunce and Miguel Caetano, from Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), which is also a MONITOOL partner and who hosted the event, presented results of the Project to the audience. After the exposition, the usefulness of the passive samplers for marine contamination evaluation, as well as the necessity to develop assessment criteria for the passive sampling techniques were discussed.

 SETAC 2020

Iratxe Menchaca and M.J. Belzunce, from AZTI-Tecnalia, along with Natalia Montero, from University of Cagliari (UNICA, also a member of the MONITOOL Consortium), coordinated the online session titled “Potential Roles for Diffusive Gradient in Thin Film (DGT) Passive Samplers in Investigative and Regulatory Monitoring” in the context of SETAC SciCon (SETAC Europe Annual Congress, 4-7 May 2020). The aim of this session was to explore the operational use of DGTs in monitoring campaigns, as well as the extent to which DGTs can be incorporated into investigative and regulatory monitoring to comply with national and European legislation.

 ISMS-SIQUIMAR 2020 and STOTEN publication

Both AZTI researchers also participated at the online XX Iberian Seminar on Marine Chemistry (SIQUIMAR 2020, 1-3 July 2020). They presented the oral communication titled “Spot sampling versus passive sampling: adapting the existing Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) for Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films (DGT), for the chemical assessment of metals in transitional and littoral waters” and the poster “High frequency measurement of metals: steps towards the acceptance of passive samplers for regulatory monitoring”. As a result of this seminar the opportunity arises to publish the presentations in a Special Issue in the journal Science of the Total Environment STOTEN.

 SEDNET WORKSHOP

Once again, Iratxe Menchaca and M.J. Belzunce attended the online version of the workshop titled "The Role of Ecotoxicological Data in Sediment Quality and Dredged Material Assessment Frameworks" (1-2 October 2020). During the event, Iratxe gave a thoughtful presentation about MONITOOL project, emphasizing the project´s strategy: common protocols, a wide geographical scope of the research (higher than regional), common database, relationship between passive and spot sampling, etc.