 |
|
||||||||||
Soil Chemistry
Prof. Ruben Kretzschmar
The
research and teaching activities of the group aim at an improved
mechanistic and quantitative understanding of processes that control the
mobility, bioavailability, and cycling of essential and potentially toxic trace elements in terrestrial
environments (e.g., Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb, Cr, As, Hg). This requires a combined approach using multiple
analytical techniques in field studies, laboratory studies with soils
under controlled environmental conditions, as well as experiments with
simplified model systems. Advanced analytical techniques used by the
group include synchrotron X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS)
spectroscopy, scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) and
micro-spectroscopy, ATR-FT-IR spectroscopy, and others. The group has
also developed an active research programme in collaboration with the
Isotope Geochemistry Group of ETH Zurich to explore the use of non-traditional stable isotopes as
novel tracers for the environmental behaviour and cycling of the
respective elements or as tracers for chemical weathering processes
(e.g., Fe, Ca, Li, Hg).
News Feed
 |
April 19, 2012Field study at the Damma glacier reveals species- and age-dependent Ca isotope fractionation by alpine plants. Hindshaw, R.S., Reynolds, B.C., Wiederhold, J.G., Kiczka, M., Kretzschmar, R., and Bourdon, B. (2012): Calcium isotope fractionation in alpine plants. Biogeochemistry. (published online April 19). |
 |
March 19, 2012Carbonate is capable of remobilizing arsenic from hematite surfaces. Brechbühl, Y., Christl, I., Elzinga, E.J., and Kretzschmar, R. (2012): Competitive Sorption of Carbonate and Arsenic to Hematite: Combined ATR-FTIR and Batch Experiments. J. Colloid Interface Sci. (published online March 19). |
 |
March 2, 2012Carbon dynamics of glacier forefield sensitive to climate changes. Smittenberg, R.H., Gierga, M., Göransson, H., Christl, I., Farinotti, D., Bernasconi, S.M. (2012): Climate-sensitive ecosystem carbon dynamics along the soil chronosequence of the Damma glacier forefield, Switzerland. Global Change Biology. (published online March 2). |
 |
February 23, 2012Calcium binding by humic acids is primarily controlled by electrostatic forces and specific binding to carboxylic groups. Christl, I. (2012): Ionic strength- and pH-dependence of calcium binding by terrestrial humic acids. Environ. Chem. 9: 89-96. |
 |
February 3-5, 2012 Snow and Fun in Lenzerheide Accompanied by some of our visitors from Tübingen and former group members we had three nice days of skiing, snowboarding and snowshoe trekking in the beautiful mountains of Lenzerheide. To the left you see some ambitious skiers, who rode the slopes despite the arctic weather with temperatures down to -25°C. |
 |
February 1-2, 2012Soil Chemistry meets Geomicrobiology -Part III The third time we met Tübingens geomicrobiologists. During two days we had great presentations given by Dr. C. Schröder, Dr. S. Behrens, Dr. A. Picard, A. Piepenbrock, E. Melton (University of Tübingen) and Y. Brechbühl, M. Hoffmann, M. Jiskra (ETH Zurich) and a vaudois dinner in the evening. Special guest was D. Macalady (Colorado School of Mines) who's visiting professor in Tübingen. He gave a presentation about the effect of sample origins and histories on the oxidation/reduction properties of natural organic matter. |
 |
January 27, 2012 Congratulations Laurie! Laurie Pesch defended her PhD thesis today. You see here on the left surrounded by her examination committee Prof. S. Krämer (University of Vienna), Prof. R. Kretzschmar (ETH Zurich), Dr. I. Christl (ETH Zurich) and Prof. A. Stone (Johns Hopkins University)after passing the traditional Soil Chemistry PhD exam. |
 |
December 7, 2011Dissolved organic Cr(III)-complexes are major products of aerobic Cr(VI)-reduction by Pseudomonas corrugata 28. Christl, I., Imseng, M., Tatti, E., Frommer, J., Viti, C., Giovannetti, L., and Kretzschmar, R. (2012): Aerobic reduction of chromium(VI) by Pseudomonas corrugata 28: Influence of metabolism and fate of reduced chromium. Geomicrobiol. J. 29: 173-185. |
 |
November 27, 2011Spectroscopic study reveals the mechanism of arsenic binding to natural organic matter in wetlands. |
 |
November 26, 2011Spectroscopic investigations point to origin of Zn in Jurassic limestone. Jacquat, O., Rambeau, C., Voegelin, A., Efimenko, N., Villard, A., Föllmi, K. B., and Kretzschmar, R.: Origin of high Zn contents in Jurassic limestone of the Jura mountain range and the Burgundy: evidence from Zn speciation and distribution. Swiss Journal of Geosciences 104: 409-424. |
 |
October 10, 2011New study provides the first spectroscopic evidence for
ternary complex formation between As(V) and Fe(III)-HS complexes.
|
 |
September 6, 2011Jessica Dittmar received Fritz Scheffer Award During the biannual meeting of the German Soil Science Society (DBG) in Berlin, our former PhD student Dr. Jessica Dittmar received the prestigious Fritz-Scheffer Award for her PhD thesis “Seasonal arsenic cycling in irrigated paddy soils in Bangladesh and arsenic uptake by rice”. Jessica presented her PhD research in a plenary talk and then received the certificate from DBG president Prof. Dr. Rainer Horn. |
 |
August 26-28, 2011 Alpstein Hiking This years hiking weekend took us to the Alpstein massif, the northernmost alpine mountains in switzerland. On the last day we climbed the highest point in this region, mount Säntis (2502m; see picture). To the left you see the soil chemistry hikers: Martin J., Martin H., Laurie, Iso, Felix, Jan, Kurt, Beate, Anke and Ruben. |
|
|
August 7-11, 2011EAG/FIMIN workshop in Tübingen, Germany Ruben and colleagues from the University of Tübingen (Germany) and Colorado State University (USA) organized a Short Course entitled “Tools in Environmental Biogeochemistry - Opportunities and Limitations”. The course was attended by 20 PhD students from five different countries. Leading experts in the field introduced the students to a variety of advanced analytical techniques, including Mössbauer spectroscopy, SEM/FIB, microelectrodes, and synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy and microscopy. The course included a full-day visit at the synchrotron ANKA (Karlsruhe) and ended with a Stocherkahn trip on the river Neckar in Tübingen. |
 |
August 5, 2011Microbial reduction of adsorbed As(V) is strongly affected by bacteria-mineral interactions promoting As(V) desorption. |
|
|
August 1, 2011Multidisciplinary research at the Damma Glacier forefield: The project BigLink |
 |
July 18, 2011New study shows how stable Fe isotopes are fractionated during biotite/chlorite weathering in a granitic glacier forefield. Kiczka, M., Wiederhold, J.G., Frommer, J., Voegelin, A., Kraemer, S.M., Bourdon, B., and Kretzschmar, R. (2011): Iron speciation and isotope fractionation during silicate weathering and soil formation in an alpine glacier forefield chronosequence. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 75: 5559-5573 |
 |
June 13, 2011New EXAFS study systematically demonstrates the influence of different hydrobenzoic acids on the formation and structure of ferrihydrite formed during Fe(III) polymerization Mikutta, C.: X-ray absorption spectroscopy study on
the effect of hydroxybenzoic acids on the formation and structure of
ferrihydrite. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 75: 5122-5139 |
 |
June 8, 2011 Congratulations Ruth! Ruth Hindshaw defended her PhD thesis today. She is pictured here with her beautiful doctoral hat on the PhD apéro. Her thesis “Chemical weathering and calcium isotope fractionation in a glaciated catchment” was conducted within the interdisciplinary project BigLink. |
 |
May 27-29, 2011 Cultural trip to Dresden The soil chemistry culture vultures (see picture: Beate, Charlotte, Laurie, Martin H., Felix, Iso, Lauren, Robin and Anke) enjoyed three days in the capital of Saxony with a nice sightseeing tour, opera and museum visits and a lot of good food! On the last day we relaxed on a hike in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. |
 |
April 27, 2011Systematic investigations of seasonal Hindshaw, R.S., Tipper, E.T., Reynolds, B.C., Lemarchand, E.,
Wiederhold, J.G., Magnusson, J., Bernasconi, S.M., Kretzschmar, R., and
Bourdon, B.: Hydrological control of stream water chemistry in a glacial
catchment (Damma Glacier, Switzerland). Chemical Geology, 285: 215-230 |
 |
April 26-27, 2011New Idria revisited Ruben, Robin, Peggy, and our collaborators from Stanford University returned to New Idria in April for soil sampling around the historic mercury mine. On the picture, we are not panning for gold nuggets, but for elemental mercury in the creek! |
 |
March 6-11, 2011FIMIN Spring School in Cordoba, Spain Ruben and colleagues from the FIMIN network taught a Spring School on “Iron in the Environment - From Nature to the Laboratory”. One of the highlights was the excursion to Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest acid mine drainage sites. Information about future FIMIN events can be found on the FIMIN website |
 |
March 04, 2011Does EPS affect the sorption of arsenic on Fe(III)-(hydr)oxides? Huang, J.-H., Elzinga, E.J., Brechbuehl, Y., Voegelin, A., and
Kretzschmar, R.: Impacts of Shewanella putrefaciens strain CN-32 cells
and extracellular polymeric substances on the sorption of As(V) and
As(III) on Fe(III)-(hydr)oxides. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45: 2804–2810 |
 |
February 07, 2011Two-step purification procedure to isolate Cu-free methanobactin Pesch, M.-L., Christl, I., Barmettler, K., Kraemer, S.M., Kretzschmar, R.: Isolation and purification of Cu-free methanobactin from Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b. Geochem. Trans. 12:2 |
 |
December 17, 2010 Quantification of 'labile' zinc in soils: New insights from combining methods Degryse, F., Voegelin, A., Jacquat, O., Kretzschmar, R., and Smolders, E.: Characterization of zinc in contaminated soils: Complementary insights from isotopic exchange, batch extractions, and XAFS spectroscopy. Europ. J. Soil Sci., 62: 318–330 |
 |
December 17, 2010 Intermittent irrigation may be a promising means of reducing arsenic input to paddy soils Roberts, L.C., Hug, S.J., Voegelin, A., Dittmar, J., Kretzschmar, R., Wehrli, B., Saha, G.C., Badruzzaman, A.B.M., Ali, M.A.: Arsenic dynamics in porewater of an intermittently irrigated paddy field in Bangladesh. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45: 971–976 |
 |
December 15, 2010New review article by Jen-How Huang and coauthors on organic arsenic species Huang, J.-H., Hu, K.-N., and Decker, B. (2011): Organic arsenic in the soil environment: Speciation, occurrence, transformation, and adsorption behavior. Water, Air, and Soil Pollut. 219:401–415. |
 |
December 13, 2010First sampling in New Idria In December Ruben, Jan, Robin and and some people of Gordon Brown's group (Stanford University) went to California for a sampling at the now-inoperative mercury mine in New Idria. They want to investigate the fractionation mechanisms of Hg isotopes in soils and plants. On the left side you see a picture of Robin at work. |
 |
December 9, 2010Contamination source phases influence the formation of new Zn species in soils Voegelin, A., Jacquat, O., Pfister, S., Barmettler, K., Scheinost, A.C., and Kretzschmar, R. (2011): Time-dependent changes of Zn-speciation in four soils contaminated with zincite or sphalerite. Environ. Sci. Technol. 45: 255–261 |
 |
December 3, 2010 A micro-focused XAS study reveals the distribution of As, Fe, and Mn around rice roots Frommer,
J., Voegelin, A., Dittmar, J., Marcus, M., and Kretzschmar, R.:
Biogeochemical processes and As enrichment around rice roots
in paddy soil: Results from bulk and micro-focused X-ray
spectroscopies. Europ. J. Soil Sci., 62: 305–317 |
 |
November 12, 2010Discussion about arsenic accumulations in rice The british Emerging Health Threats Forum published a nice article about accumulations of arsenic in rice which is based on our ES&T paper from March 2010. They discussed and commented our results together with several international environmental scientists. |
 |
November 2, 2010 New field and pot studies on As uptake by wetland rice Dittmar, J., Voegelin, A., Maurer, F., Roberts, L.C., F., Hug, S.J.,
Saha, G.C., Ali, M.A., Badruzzaman, A.B.M., and Kretzschmar, R.:
Arsenic in soil and irrigation water affects As uptake by rice:
Complementary insights from field and pot studies. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44: 8842–8848 |
 |
October 8, 2010 Fractionation of calcium isotopes during the initial stages of weathering Hindshaw, R.S., Reynolds, B.C., Wiederhold, J.G., Kretzschmar, R., and Bourdon, B.: Calcium isotopes in a proglacial weathering environment: Damma glacier, Switzerland. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 75: 106-118 |
 |
September 24-26, 2010 Hiking in Ticino The annually hiking weekend ouf our group took us 1,704 m above sea level on top of Monte Generoso. There we enjoyed the overwhelming scenery over Lugano, the Swiss Alps and Po Valley. To the left is a picture of the soil chemistry hikers: Martin J., Felix, Martin H., Beate, Laurie, Kurt and Charlotte. |
 |
September 9-10, 2010Return visit in Tübingen: Again, we had a great series of talks during two days presented by Dr. S. Behrens, Dr. C. Schmidt, U. Dippon, F. Hegler (University of Tübingen) and Dr. I. Christl, Dr. P. Mandaliev, Dr. J. Weinhold, B. Fulda (ETH Zurich). In the evening we were invited to Andreas Kappler's home for a typical Swabian dinner. Another highlight was a "Stocherkahnfahrt" on the beautiful river Neckar. |
 |
September 3, 2010 Congratulations Mirjam! Mirjam Kiczka-Cyriac defended her PhD thesis today. She is pictured here with her examination committee Prof. W. Wilcke (University of Bern), Dr. J. Wiederhold (ETH Zurich), Prof. R. Kretzschmar (ETH Zurich) and Prof. S. Krämer (University of Vienna) (Prof. Bourdon (ETH Zurich) is unfortunately missing) after passing the Soil Chemistry graduation ceremony. |
 |
August 2, 2010 XAS study about the structure of Fe(III)-Cr(III)-oxyhydroxides Frommer, J., Nachtegaal, M., Czekaj, I., and Kretzschmar, R. (2010):
The Cr X-ray absorption K-edge structure of poorly crystalline Fe(III)-Cr(III)-oxyhydroxides. Am. Mineralog. 95, 1202–1213 |
 |
July 26, 2010 How iron isotopes fractionate during uptake by plants Kiczka, M., Wiederhold, J.G., Kraemer, S.M., Bourdon, B., and
Kretzschmar, R. (2010): Iron isotope fractionation during Fe uptake and
translocation in alpine plants. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44: 6144–6150 |
 |
July 2, 2010 Reduction of humic acid increase the amount of proton-reactive sites of humic acid Maurer, F., Christl, I., and Kretzschmar, R. (2010): Reduction and
reoxidation of humic acid: Influence on spectroscopic properties and
proton binding. Env. Sci. Technol. 44: 5787–5792 |
 |
June 30, 2010 How small organic molecules affect the structure of ferrihydrite Mikutta, C., Frommer, J., Voegelin, A, Kaegi, R., and Kretzschmar, R. (2010):
Effect of citrate on the local Fe coordination in ferrihydrite,
arsenate binding, and ternary arsenate complex formation.
Cosmochim. Geochim. Acta 74: 5574-5592 |
 |
June 4, 2010 New sequential extraction method for speciation of arsenic Huang, J.-H., and Kretzschmar, R. (2010): Sequential extraction method for
speciation of arsenate and arsenite in mineral soils. Anal. Chem. 82: 5534–5540 |
 |
May 5, 2010News about mercury isotope fractionation Wiederhold, J.G., Cramer, C.J., Daniel, K., Infante, I., Bourdon, B.,
and Kretzschmar, R. (2010): Equilibrium mercury isotope fractionation between
dissolved Hg(II) species and thiol-bound Hg. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44: 4191-4197 |
 |
March 17, 2010New publication in Bangladesh arsenic project Dittmar, J., Voegelin, A., Roberts, L.C., Hug, S.J., Saha, G.C.,
Ali, M.A., Badruzzaman, A.B.M., and Kretzschmar, R. (2010): Arsenic
accumulation in a paddy field in Bangladesh: Seasonal dynamics and
trends over a three-year monitoring period. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44: 2925-2931. |
 |
February 23, 2010New publication on iron isotope fractionation during dissolution processes Kiczka, M., Wiederhold, J.G., Frommer, J., Kraemer S.M., Bourdon,
B., Kretzschmar, R. (2010): Iron isotope fractionation during proton- and
ligand-promoted dissolution of primary phyllosilicates . Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 74: 3112-3128 |
 |
February 11-12, 2010Soil Chemistry meets Geomicrobiology The last two days a interdisciplinary meeting of our group and the geomicrobiology group of the University of Tübingen was held. Presentations were given by Dr. J.-H. Huang, P. Langner, F. Maurer, A. Hofacker (ETH Zurich) and Dr. M. Obst, C. Hohmann, P. Sharma, M. Emmerich (University of Tübingen). In the evening we enjoyed a delicious cheese-fondue at Zurich's Chäsalp. |
 |
January, 2010Soil Science "Bible" newly released 16th edition of "Scheffer/Schachtschabel - Lehrbuch der Bodenkunde" is released with a fully revised 5th chapter ("Chemische Eigenschaften und Prozesse") by R. Kretzschmar |
 |
January 1, 2010ES&T focus issue on Biogeochemical Redox Processes released Edited by associate editor Ruben Kretzschmar and several guest editors. |
 |
December 14, 2009Borch et al. Critical Review on Biogeochemical Redox Processes and their Impact on Contaminant Dynamics Borch, T., Kretzschmar, R., Kappler, A., Van Cappellen, Ph., Ginder-Vogel, M., Voegelin, A., and Campbell, K. (2010): Biogeochemical redox processes and their impact on contaminant dynamics. Environ. Sci. Technol. 44: 15-23 |
 |
December 13, 2009Roberts et al. As release from paddy soils during monsoon flooding counteracts long-term As accumulation in rice fields Roberts, L.C., Hug, S.J., Dittmar, J., Voegelin, A., Kretzschmar, R., Wehrli, B., Cirpka, O., Saha, G.C., Ali, M.A., and Badruzzaman, A.B.M. (2010): Arsenic mobilization from paddy soils during monsoon flooding. Nature Geosci. 3: 53-59 |
 |
November 18, 2009Weber et. al. on the mobilization of As during Fe and As reduction in a floodplain soil Weber, F.-A., Hofacker, A.F., Voegelin, A., and Kretzschmar, R. (2010): Temperature dependence and coupling of iron and arsenic reduction and release during flooding of a contaminated soil. Env. Sci. Technol. 44: 116-122 |
Wichtiger Hinweis:
Diese Website wird in älteren Versionen von Netscape ohne
graphische Elemente dargestellt. Die Funktionalität der
Website ist aber trotzdem gewährleistet. Wenn Sie diese
Website regelmässig benutzen, empfehlen wir Ihnen, auf
Ihrem Computer einen aktuellen Browser zu installieren. Weitere
Informationen finden Sie auf
folgender
Seite.
Important Note:
The content in this site is accessible to any browser or
Internet device, however, some graphics will display correctly
only in the newer versions of Netscape. To get the most out of
our site we suggest you upgrade to a newer browser.
More
information
