Contaminant transport refers to the physical and chemical processes governing the movement and fate of pollutants within environmental media such as groundwater, surface water, soil, and the atmosphere. It encompasses advection, dispersion, diffusion, sorption, volatilization, degradation, and transformation reactions that control contaminant distributions and concentrations over space and time. In research, contaminant transport is described by coupled partial differential equations derived from mass conservation, often incorporating multiphase flow, reactive transport, heterogeneity, and scale-dependent parameters. Accurate characterization and modeling of contaminant transport are critical for risk assessment, remediation design, and prediction of long-term contaminant plume evolution in engineered and natural systems.
Microplastic contamination has been a much-discussed topic over the last several years, but contamination from even smaller plastic particles represents another pressing issue. Nanoplastics—defined as being under a micrometer ...
A newer "climate-friendly" refrigerant used in car air conditioning systems may already be a significant, and possibly dominant, source of a "forever chemical" pollutant across Europe, according to a new University of Bristol-led ...
Environment
17 hours ago
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Bumblebees collect up to seven times the amount of toxic heavy metals as honeybees even when foraging in the same environment, new research from the University of Cambridge has found. Exposure to these metals can affect everything ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2026
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Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals widely used in industrial processes and consumer products because of their resistance to heat, water and oil. However, these same properties ...
Environment
Jul 1, 2026
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Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is one of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of substances within a broader universe of organofluorine compounds. PFOA has potential adverse effects on human health and environmental ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 1, 2026
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The Himalayas are often seen as one of Earth's great natural barriers, separating the heavily populated and industrialized regions of South Asia from the remote Tibetan Plateau. But new research, published in Geophysical ...
Florida International University scientists have, for the first time, detected a toxic tire-derived chemical in Florida waterways and developed a new testing method that makes it easier to find and monitor the pollutant at ...
Environment
Jun 24, 2026
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Micro- and nanoplastics are now popping up everywhere: in seawater, snow, food and even in our bodies. The very smallest particles, in particular, are difficult to measure, meaning we still know too little about their spread ...
Environment
Jun 18, 2026
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University of Notre Dame researchers analyzed 42 years of biological records from the Great Lakes, unveiling how per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or "forever chemicals," have moved across the region, contaminating ...
Environment
Jun 18, 2026
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Rainfall history is just as critical to predicting air pollution as where the air came from, a team led by University of Michigan Engineering researchers, in collaboration with scientists at the Appalachian Mountain Club ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 17, 2026
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