Environmental molecular diagnostics (EMDs) are advanced tools that help scientists better understand what is happening in soil, groundwater, sediment, and surface water. They provide biological and chemical information that traditional environmental testing may not detect, such as information about contaminants, microorganisms, and the processes affecting contaminant breakdown. Environmental molecular diagnostics can help answer questions about where a contaminant came from, how it is degrading, and whether microorganisms are actively breaking it down.
The Environmental Molecular Diagnostics Fact Sheets (EMD-1, 2011) are ten fact sheets that provide introductory information on different environmental molecular diagnostics tools and how they can be used in environmental management. The fact sheets cover Introduction to Environmental Molecular Diagnostics, Compound Specific Isotope Analysis, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction, Microbial Fingerprinting Methods, Microarrays, Stable Isotope Probing, Enzyme Activity Probes, Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, and EMD Sampling Methods.
The updated guidance, Environmental Molecular Diagnostics: New Site Characterization and Remediation Enhancement Tools (EMD-2, 2013), goes into greater detail on how environmental molecular diagnostics can be used during site investigation, cleanup, and monitoring, including what each method can do, how to collect samples and interpret results, and relevant case studies.
Topic(s): Advanced Site Characterization, EMD, Remediation Technologies, Site Characterization
