Location: Application Technology Research
Project Number: 5082-21000-001-072-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2023
End Date: Aug 31, 2024
Objective:
Profile chemical constituents of the runoff and leachate under various containerized growing conditions; (1) evaluating the time release profile of specific highly concentrated organics or metals to determine persistent effects release timing (2) identify possible pre-treatment or in-line treatment options to reduce hazardous chemical constituents.
Approach:
Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry will be used for the direct analysis and characterization of organic solubles from samples collected at commercial nursery or greenhouse operations, while dispersive solid phase extraction with specially designed coordination polymers will be used to preconcentrate and extract targeted and untargeted metals. Statistical methods will be used on the significant amount of extraction data, to reveal the unique compounds found in each sample. This approach allows a more robust comparison between samples, resulting in the ability to discriminate agricultural runoffs based on their characterized components and to provide a better understanding of the correlation between the samples and their constituents. The classification methods used in this study will be principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares- discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), which permit the user to classify and discriminate samples based on any recorded data.
