Legacy phosphorus

From the 1950s, the Seine, like all rivers in France, suffered the consequences of the growth of cities and agriculture intensification. Massive quantities of chemical fertilizer and wastewater containing nitrogen and phosphorus, were released into the river network. Today, and since the 2000’s, wastewater treatment plants remove phosphorus from wastewater before it reaches the rivers. As a result, the quantities of phosphorus released into the environment have drastically decreased. However, the problem has not been completely resolved.

In the framework of the PIREN SEINE programme, Guillaume Morin and his team (IMPMC -CNRS/UPMC/IRD) are interested in the phosphorus stored in riverbeds, and in trying to discover if it will remain trapped there forever, or cause further disturbances.

This video follows one of the X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy experiments carried out by Guillaume Morin at the LUCIA beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL, as part of this topic.