Research interests

  • Pollutant biogeochemistry
  • Microbial transformation and ecology in continental hydrosystems
  • Biodegradation of industrial and micropollutants in wetlands, soils and aquifers
  • Sustainability science: freshwater sustainability, resilience and adaptation of socio-hydrosystems

Current research

  • Transformation of micropollutants at the water-sediment interface, in agricultural soils, in urban setting and on the catchment scale with stable isotope fractionation (compound-specific isotope analysis)

Understanding the transport and transformation of micropollutants from both toxic and diffuse sources presents a significant challenge in the 21st century, becoming crucial for the preservation of soil and water resources. Micropollutant fluxes, both surface and subsurface, can be intercepted and transformed in transitional reactive zones, such as wetlands and the interface between groundwater and surface water, before reaching downstream ecosystems. These reactive zones act as "biogeochemical hotspots," featuring dynamic interfaces among water, soil/sediment, and microorganisms. These zones exhibit complex combinations of electron acceptors and donors, which reflect microbial diversity and biogeochemical activity.

Key research questions in this field include: What are the hydrological and biogeochemical dynamics of these hotspots concerning pollutant transport and microbial transformation? What are the taxonomic and functional diversity, physiology, and metabolic roles of microorganisms involved in pollutant degradation? How do microorganisms respond to pollution regimes and hydro-biogeochemical fluctuations, and how do these responses influence key ecosystem services, such as water quality improvement, flood mitigation, and biodiversity enhancement? My research focuses on elucidating the microbial processes underlying pollutant transformation in agricultural systems, aquifers, and wetlands.

Curriculum

Since 2021Director of the Research Initiative in Sustainability and the Environment (RISE/FERED) (https://fered.unistra.fr/)
Since 2019Research Professor CNRS (DR)
2013Habilitation (HDR): Université de Strasbourg, France
Since 2009Research scientist: National Centre for Scientific Research – CNRS, France (LHyGeS)
2008-2009Post-doc: Laboratory of Hydrology and Geochemistry of Strasbourg (LHyGeS), UdS /ENGEES, CNRS ; Strasbourg, France
2005-2008Ph.D. thesis in Isotope Biogeochemistry: Department of Isotope Biogeochemistry of the Hemholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany (http://www.ufz.de). PhD Fellowships within Marie Curie ITN programme.
2003-2005Master of advanced studies in Hydrology and Water Resources Management : Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (EPFL), (ETHZ) and the Centre of Hydrogeology of the University of Neuchâtel (CHYN). Master thesis at IIT Chenai (India).
1998-2003Master in Biology (spec. Microbial ecology): University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland)

Current and recent research supports

  • Reactive City : Programme INTERREG VI (European Regional Development Fund). Une ville pro-réa-active sans biocides Co-PI. 2023-2027. Coll. : Uni Freiburg (Hydrologie et Pharmacie), Uni Landau, UMR SAGE, INSA, Villes de Strasbourg, Landau, Freiburg.
  • Topensuz : ANSES-Agence de l'eau Rhin-Meuse. Transformation des herbicides et de l’azote dans la zone saturée et non saturée de captages d’eau potable. PI. 2023-2027. Coll. IPREM UMR 5254 Université de Pau et des pays de l'Adour.
  • 80|Prime 2020 : CNRS - Mission pour les initiatives transverses et interdisciplinaires | MITI. Biodégradation de micropolluants dans les nappes aquifères : couplage d’approches de géochimie isotopique et de génomique microbienne. PI. 2020-2023. Coll. : GMGM UMR 7156 Unistra.
  • NAVEBGO : Programme INTERREG V (European Regional Development Fund). Réduction de l’apport de biocides dans les eaux souterraines du Rhin supérieur. Full Partner. 2019-2022. Coll. : Uni Freiburg, Uni Luneburg, Uni Landau, UMR SAGE. https://www.navebgo.uni-freiburg.de/fr/navebgo-1
  • PESTIPOND : French National Research Agency (ANR). Role of ponds in the transfer and impact of pesticides in surface waters of the critical zone in agricultural environment. PI. 2019-2023. Coll. : INRAE (Anthony et Bordeaux), Ecolabo Toulouse, et 15 partenaires socio-économiques. http://pestipond.cnrs.fr/
  • IAEA Coordinated Research Project: Multiple Isotope Fingerprints to Identify Sources and Transport of Agro-Contaminants (D15018). Consultant / Full Partner. 2018-2023. 18 participing countries.
  • DECiSIvE : French National Research Agency (ANR). Tracking degradation of soil pollutants with multi-elemental compound-specific isotope analysis. Full Partner. 2019-2022. Coll. INRAE (Dijon) et Uni Aix-Marseille. https://lce.univ-amu.fr/fr/projet-anr-decisive
  • 2D-DCM : EC2CO-INSU (CNRS). Transport réactif du dichlorométhane en aquifères de laboratoire. PI. 2017-2019. Coll. : GMGM UMR 7156 Unistra.
  • SERIOR:Graduate Academy « Security-Risk-Orientation ». Programme INTERREG V (European Regional Development Fund). Partner. 2015-2019.
  • PACOV:AERM (Rhine-Meuse Water Agency) and Alsace Region, « Plateforme Alsacienne du Cuivre d’Origine Viticole ». PI.
  • MicXtreme : (labEX G-EAU-THERMY 2014), Microbiology of the extremes : from the mineralosphere to the Soultz-sous-forêts geothermal plant. PI.
  • BioGeoLink : Biogeochemistry of organism-water-mineral interfaces : Initiative d’Excellence (IdEX), University of Strasbourg. Equipment grant : GC-C-IRMS.
  • CSI:ENVIRONMENT : Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN) Call : FP7-PEOPLE-2010-ITN (7ème PCRD), « Isotope forensics meets biogeochemistry – linking sources and sinks of organic contaminants by compound specific isotope investigation ». http://www.csi-environment.ufz.de. Full partner (coord. UFZ-Leipzig).
  • PhytoRET : Potential of constructed wetland of the Upper-Rhine Region for the mitigation of pesticides. Programme INTERREG IV (European Regional Development Fund). Coord. team. 2011-2014.

Teaching, news and public conferences

Group members

  • Benoît Guyot, Engineer-CNRS (Stable isotope lab and chromatography)
  • Christophe Marcic, (MCF) IUT Schiltigheim (Analytical chemistry)
  • Sylvain Payraudeau, (Prof) ENGEES (Contaminant hydrology and catchment hydrology)

PhD students

  • 2024 -  : Gabrielle Chedin (Ministère de l'Agriculture/AERM Topensuz; co-advised with S. Payraudeau, ITES).
  • 2023 -  : Aline Feder (AERM Topensuz; co-advised with S. Payraudeau, ITES).
  • 2022 –  : Jakob Popp (ED413/ENGEES; co-advised with J. Masbou, ITES)
  • 2020 – 2024 : Adrien Borreca (Project 80 PRIME; co-advised with S. Vuilleumier, GMGM)
  • 2019 – 2022 : Tobias Junginger (Project NAVEBGO; co-advised with S. Payraudeau, ITES). Prix de thèse de la Fédération de Recherche Environnement et Durabilité de l'Université de Strasbourg.
  • 2018 – 2022 : Maria Prieto Espinoza (Project 2D-DCM; co-advised with S. Weill, ITES). Prix de thèse de la Commission Recherche de l'Université de Strasbourg.
  • 2017 - 2020 : Boris Droz (Project POLISO; co-advised with S. Payraudeau, ITES)
  • 2017 - 2020 : Guilaume Drouin (Project POLISO; co-advised with S. Payraudeau, ITES)
  • 2015 - 2019 : Pablo Alvarez (IDEX; co-advised with S. Payraudeau, ITES)
  • 2014 - 2018 : Fatima Meite (Project PACOV)
  • 2013 - 2017 :  Bastien Wild (Project labEX G-EAU-THERMY ‘MicXtreme’; co-advised with D. Daval, ITES/ISTerre). Prix de thèse de la Commission Recherche de l'Université de Strasbourg. Prix OZCAR 2019.
  • 2011 -  2015 : Izabella Babcsanyi (Project PACOV; co-advised with F. Chabaux, ITES)
  • 2011 - 2015 : Ominia Elsayed (ITN Marie-Curie, CSI:Environment; co-advised with S. Vuilleumier, GMGM)
  • 2010 - 2014 : Marie Lefrancq (Project  INTERREG IV PhytoRET; co-advised with S. Payraudeau)
  • 2010 - 2014 : Elodie Maillard (Project INTERREG IV PhytoRET)

Post-Doctoral Researchers

  • 2023 - : Xiao Liu (Marie-Curie fellow)
  • 2022 - 2023 : Laura Sereni (IDEX, Unistra)
  • 2021 - : Felix Kögler (Leopoldina fellow/INTERREG VI Reactive City)
  • 2020 – 2021 : Rungroch Sungthong (ANR Project DECiSIvE)
  • 2019 – 2022: Tetyana Gilevska (ANR Project PESTIPOND)
  • 2017 – 2019 : Paula Pérez Rodríguez (Project RhISOTOP)
  • 2016 – 2018 : Jérémy Masbou (INTERREG Project SERIOR)
  • 2015 – 2018 : Charline Wiegert (AERM Project PACOV)

Scientific contribution : recent and selection

(full list is provided below as pdf)

A) Peer-reviewed articles (ISI) (>100; orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-4666), here are the recent (last 4 years) and main review articles :

2024

2023

  • Junginger T., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G. (2023). Emissions of the Urban Biocide Terbutryn from Facades: The Contribution of Transformation Products. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08192

  • Prieto-Espinoza M., Di Chiara R., Muller E.E.L., Vuilleumier S., Imfeld G., Weill S. (2023). Combining multi-phase flow and pathway-specific reactive transport modeling to investigate the impact of water table fluctuations on dichloromethane biodegradation. Advances in Water Resources. 104519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2023.104519

  • Imfeld G., Payraudeau S., Sauvage S., Macary F., Chaumont C., et al. (2023). Quel est le rôle des retenues collinaires pour limiter les flux de pesticides dans le paysage agricole ?. Sciences Eaux & Territoires, 43, pp.49-56. ⟨10.20870/Revue-SET.2023.43.7792⟩

  • Linke, F., Edun, O., Junginger, T., Payraudeau S., Preusser F., Imfeld G., Lange J. (2023) Biocides in Soils of Urban Stormwater Infiltration Systems—Indications of Inputs from Point and Non-point Sources. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 586.  doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06613-0

  • Gilevska T., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G. (2023). Evaluating pesticide degradation in artificial wetlands with compound-specific isotope analysis: A case study with the fungicide dimethomorph. Science of the Total Environment. 165767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165767

  • Imfeld G., Guyot B., Wiegert C., Payraudeau S. (2023). Soil management drives copper and zinc export in runoff from vineyard plots. Water Air Soil Pollut. 234:357. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06352-2

  • Saaidi P.-L., Grünberger O., Samouelian A, Le Roux Y., Richard A., Devault D.A., Feidt C., Benoit P., Evrard O., Imfeld G., Mouvet C., Voltz M. (2023). Is a dissipation half-life of 5 years for chlordecone in soils of the French West Indies relevant? Environmental Pollution, 324 121283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121283

  • Masbou J., Payraudeau S., Guyot B., Imfeld G. (2023). Dimethomorph degradation in vineyards examined by isomeric and isotopic fractionation. Chemosphere 313, 137341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.137341

  • Bahi A., Sauvage S., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G., Sánchez-Pérez J-M., Chaumet B., Tournebize J. (2023). Process formulations and controlling factors of pesticide dissipation in artificial ponds: A critical review. Ecological Engineering 186, 106820. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2022.106820

  • Prieto-Espinoza M., Di Chiara R., Belfort B., Weill S., Imfeld G. (2023). Reactive transport of micropollutants in laboratory aquifers undergoing transient exposure periods. Science of The Total Environment, 15917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159170

2022

  • Chaignaud P., Gruffaz C., Borreca A., Fouteau S., Kuhn L., Masbou J., Rouy Z., Hammann P., Imfeld G., Roche D., Vuilleumier S. (2022). A Methylotrophic Bacterium Growing with the Antidiabetic Drug Metformin as Its Sole Carbon, Nitrogen and Energy Source. Microorganisms 10 (11), 2302. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10112302

  • Gilevska T., Wiegert C., Droz B., Junginger T., Prieto-Espinoza M., Borreca A., Imfeld G. (2022). Simple extraction methods for pesticide compound-specific isotope analysis from environmental samples. MethodsX 9, 101880. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2022.101880

  • Höhener P., Guers D., Malleret L., Boukaroum O., Martin-Laurent F., Masbou J., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G. (2022). Multi-elemental compound-specific isotope analysis of pesticides for source identification and monitoring of degradation in soil: a review. Environmental Chemistry Letter. doi.org/10.1007/s10311-022-01489-8

  • Gilevska T., Masbou J., Baumelin B., Chaumet B., Chaumont C., Payraudeau S., Tounebize J., Probst A., Probst J.-L., Imfeld G. (2022). Do pesticides degrade in surface water receiving runoff from agricultural catchments? Combining passive samplers (POCIS) and compound-specific isotope analysis. 156735

  • Junginger T., Payraudeau S., Imfeld G. (2022) Transformation and stable isotope fractionation of the urban biocide terbutryn during biodegradation, photodegradation and abiotic hydrolysis. Chemosphere, 135329.

  • Meite F., Granet M., Imfeld G. (2022). Ageing of copper, zinc and synthetic pesticides in particle-size and chemical fractions of agricultural soils. Science of The Total Environment, 153860.

2021

  • Drouin G., Droz B., Leresche F., Payraudeau S., Masbou J., Imfeld G. (2021). Direct and indirect photodegradation of atrazine and S-metolachlor in agriculturally impacted surface water and associated C and N isotope fractionation. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. 23 (11), 1791-1802.
  • Imfeld G., Duplay J., Payraudeau S. (2021). Comment on ‘Ecotoxicity of copper input and accumulation for soil biodiversity in vineyards’ by Karimi et al. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 1-3.
  • Prieto-Espinoza M., Weill S., Belfort B., Muller E.E.L., Masbou J., Lehmann F., Vuilleumier S., Imfeld G. (2021). Water table fluctuations affect dichloromethane biodegradation in lab-scale aquifers contaminated with organohalides. Water Research, 117530.                                                             
  • Droz B., Payraudeau S., Antonio Rodríguez Martín J., Tóth G., Panagos P., Montanarella L, Borrelli P., Imfeld G. (2021). Copper Content and Export in European Vineyard Soils Influenced by Climate and Soil PropertiesEnvironmental Science & Technology. 55, 11, 7327–7334
  • Wild B., Imfeld G., Daval D. Direct measurement of fungal contribution to silicate weathering rates in soil. (2021).  Geology. v. 49, p.
  • Droz B., Drouin G., Maurer L., Villette C., Payraudeau S. Imfeld G. (2021). Phase Transfer and Biodegradation of Pesticides in Water-Sediment Systems Explored by Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis and Conceptual Modeling. Environmental Science & Technology. doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c06283
  • Drouin G., Fahs M., Droz B., Younes A., Imfeld G., Payraudeau S. (2021). Pollutant Dissipation at the Sediment‐Water Interface: A Robust Discrete Continuum Numerical Model and Recirculating Laboratory Experiments. Water Resources Research 57 (3), e2020WR028932
  • Hellal J., Joulian C., Urien C., Ferreira S., Denonfoux J., Hermon L., Vuilleumier S., Imfeld G. (2021). Chlorinated ethene biodegradation and associated bacterial taxa in multi-polluted groundwater: Insights from biomolecular markers and stable isotope analysis. Science of the Total Environment 763, 142950
  • Höhener P., Imfeld G. (2021). Quantification of Lambda (Λ) in multi-elemental compound-specific isotope analysis. Chemosphere, 129232
  • Pérez-Rodríguez P., Schmitt A-D., Gangloff  S., Masbou J., Imfeld G. Plants affect the dissipation and leaching of anilide pesticides in soil mesocosms: Insights from compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA). (2021). AGEE 308 107257.
  • Imfeld G., Payraudeau S., Tournebize J., Sauvage S., Macary F., Chaumont C., Probst A., Sanchez-Pérez J-M., Bahi A., Chaumet B., Gilevska T., Alexandre H., Probst J-L.The Role of Ponds in Pesticide Dissipation at the Agricultural Catchment Scale: A Critical Review. (2021). Water 13 (9), 1202. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13091202

2020

  • Imfeld G., Meite F., Wiegert C., Guyot B., Masbou J., Payraudeau S. (2020). Do rainfall characteristics affect the export of copper, zinc and synthetic pesticides in surface runoff from headwater catchments? Science of the Total Environment 741, 140437
  • Fournier B., Dos Santos S.P., Gustavsen J.A., Imfeld G., Lamy F., Mitchell E.A.D., Mota M., Noll D., Planchamp C., T Heger T.J. (2020). Impact of a synthetic fungicide (fosetyl-Al and propamocarb-hydrochloride) and a biopesticide (Clonostachys rosea) on soil bacterial, fungal, and protist communities. Science of The Total Environment 738, 139635.
  • Torabi E, Wiegert C, Guyot B, Vuilleumier S, Imfeld G. (2020). Dissipation of S-metolachlor and butachlor in agricultural soils and responses of bacterial communities: Insights from compound-specific isotope and biomolecular analyses. JES. 92, 163-175
  • Chevallier M.L., Della-Negra O., Chaussonnerie S., Barbance A., Muselet D., Lagarde F., Darii E., Ugarte E., Lescop E., Fonknechten N., Weissenbach J., Woignier T., Gallard J.- F., Vuilleumier S., Imfeld G., Le Paslier D., Saaidi L. (2019). Natural chlordecone degradation revealed by numerous transformation products characterized in key French West Indies environmental compartments. Environmental science & technology 53 (11), 6133-6143. DOI : 10.1021/acs.est.8b06305

 

Reviews and books

Full list of publications available here