#OnTheBeamlines: Around the world, many soils and mine sites are contaminated with the elements copper, chromium, and nickel. Unfortunately, there are few effective on-site methods for removing or immobilizing these contaminants. The chemical form of these elements can dramatically change their toxicity and mobility, and hence, the risk they pose to plants and animals. Researchers from University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture and Bioresources used the CLS to study tailings from an active Canadian gold mine, to determine what chemical form the elements are in. While the concentrations of these elements in the tailings are high enough to be biologically toxic, they are not concentrated enough to be “seen” by many other detection techniques. What they’re learning using our Bio-XAS beamline will help the team make informed predictions and inferences about where these elements can move in the environment, how toxic they will be to a variety of organisms, and how they could be cleaned up. Researcher Levi Lundell (in photo) says their work could eventually lead to finding new ways of restoring contaminated sites to functional, healthy, ecosystems. #environment #mining