The “Environmental Fate and Ecotoxicity Assessment” Research Group aims to advance knowledge in the field of environmental sciences by developing and implementing induced fluorescence-based and other instrumental detection methods for environmental safety assessment. It pursues innovative studies of the occurrence, persistence and biological effects of inorganic and inorganic microcontaminants of agricultural or other origin. We use an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to assess environmental and food safety consequences as affected by the target microcontaminants.

The Research Group aims to assess the emergence, environmental fate and ecotoxicity of contaminants jeopardizing the environmental safety of agricultural production. Methodological expansion of the modular set of our previously developed laser-induced fluorescence-based instrument prototypes is applied as a means to carry out specific monitoring and assessment of the target contaminants. Thus, research has been commenced in three directions: (a) expansion of the range of analytes of our laser-fluorescence instruments; (b) assessment the dissipation and (eco)toxicity of agricultural pollutants, and subsequent development of a database for the environmental assessment of agrochemicals; and (c) detection of organic microcontaminants, potentially toxic elements, and technological pollutants during waste management facilitating conversion to circular economy.

The project will enable us to develop novel enzyme-linked fluorescent immunoassay methods optimized for aquatic media for several target analytes including pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine or sulfonamides, etc.), pesticides (e.g. neonicotinoids; bioinsecticide ivermectin, etc.) or other organic microcontaminants. The advancement in instrumentation will make immunoassay performance possible in ultra-low test volumes allowing monitoring target analytes in biological samples of rather limited availability. The analytical sensitivity of the methods will facilitate following the fate of the target analytes in environmental (e.g., surface water, soil, biological tissue) and technological (e.g., composting biomass) matrices.

Prof. Dr. András Székács Institute of Environmental Sciences University Professor Research keywords: pesticides, mycotoxins, organic microcontaminants, environmental safety, genetically modified (gm) plants

Dr. László Aleksza Institute of Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Research keywords: waste management, composting technologies, environmental biotechnologies, biogas production, dry fermentation

Dr. Márk Horváth Institute of Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Research keywords: environmental analysis, instrumental analysis, fractionation, validation, icp-oes

Dr. Szandra Klátyik Institute of Environmental Sciences Research Fellow Research keywords: ecotoxicology, pesticides, toxicology, terrestrial ecotoxicology, aquatic ecotoxicology, environmental fate of pollutants, environmental monitoring, food safety

Dr. Mária Mörtl Institute of Environmental Sciences Senior Research Fellow Research keywords: pesticides, mycotoxins, gas and liquid chromatography, sample preparation, guttation liquid

Dr. Anikó Seres Institute for Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Associate Professor Research keywords: ecotoxicology, soil ecology, decomposition, mesofauna, zoology

Dr. Eszter Takács Institute of Environmental Sciences Senior Research Fellow Research keywords: environmental analysis, environmental safety, aquatic ecotoxicology, pesticide, mycotoxin, acute and chronic toxicity, immunoassay, monitoring, environmental fate, risk assessment, fluorescence

Inotai, K., Bata‑Vidács, I., Tóth, Á., Kosztik, J., Varga, M., Szekeres, A., Nagy, I., Nagy, I., Dobolyi, Cs., Mörtl, M., Székács, A., Kukolya, J. (2024) Glass bead system to study mycotoxin production of Aspergillus spp. on corn and rice starches. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 108: 348. doi: 10.1007/s00253-024-13190-7, Q1

Fekete, Gy., Sebők, A., Klátyik, Sz., Varga, Zs. I., Grósz, J., Czinkota, I., Székács, A., Aleksza, L. (2024) Comparative analysis of laboratory-based and spectroscopic methods used to estimate the algal density of Chlorella vulgaris. Microorganisms, 12 (6): 1050. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms12061050, Q2

Varga, Zs.I., Shahzad, S., Ramay, M.W., Damak, M., Gulyás, M., Béres, A., Gyuricza, Cs., Székács, A., Aleksza, L. (2024) Ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions from organic manure composting: The effect of membrane cover. Agronomy, 14 (7): 1471. doi: 10.3390/agronomy14071471, Q1