Ever increasing numbers of chemicals are used in industry and agriculture due to technical progress. A monitoring system based solely on the analysis of individual compounds is not practical as an effective control.

However, in this project, in cooperation with the LAR GmbH, a new type of highly sensitive yet robust Online-Toximeter is being developed for low-cost environmental monitoring of water quality. This is done by the use of cultures of novel organisms cultures for high-precision measurements of low concentrations of pollutants.

For this purpose, these novel nitrifying communities are characterized on a microbiological and molecular level, and optimized with regards to culturing conditions for a practical application.