Das Projekt "Carriers of Vital and Detrimental Compounds in Environmental Compartments: Request for Funding of Coordination and System Analysis (nature, behaviour and role)" wird/wurde gefördert durch: Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung. Es wird/wurde ausgeführt durch: Universite de Geneve, Institut F.-A. Forel.Man-made pollution of the environment is mainly due to inputs of pollutants and their transport in the geosphere, to storage and transformation by biological and chemical processes. The evaluation, prevention and clean up of pollution needs a thorough understanding of the concerned natural processes. The study of biogeochemical cycles in the environment is therefore one of the main topics of natural sciences in environmental research. The Swiss National Foundation for Scientific research started at the beginning of 1994 a new coordinated research program on biogeochemical cycles. The main goal of this Module 2 of the Priority Program Environment is the creation of a Swiss multidisciplinary network in the field of biogeochemical cycles, allowing as many research groups as possible to participate. The purpose of this common program is to investigate qualitatively and quantitatively the role of carriers on the fluxes of vital and detrimental compounds inside compartments and at the compartment boundaries: air, soil, sediments, surface water, subsurface and ground water. During 1994-1995, research will be focused in particular on sub micron colloids which are very little known. Leading Questions: What are the macroscopic processes of contaminant transport in complex natural environments (system analysis)? Occurence and properties of colloidal carriers in the air, the soil and the water? Mobility of colloidal carriers of contaminants? Implications for the contaminant transport (sorption, desorption, transformation)? Methods of sampling, preparation, analysis?