The Department of Contaminant Research

and

The Environmental Specimen Bank

The Department concentrates on studying and assessing time-trends as well as the spatial variation of contaminants on land, in lakes, at sea and in the coastal areas of Sweden. We also monitor the population of top marine predators.

Furthermore, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has also given us the responsibility of seeing that the environmental specimens collected annually are stored in the Environmental Specimen Bank.

The aim of contaminant monitoring is to detect undesirable changes in environmental pollution and to follow up the measures taken by Swedish authorities to ensure that they are effective against chemical pollution, discharges and the spread of bioaccumulating compounds.

The Department has special research projects for seals, fish otter and predatory birds such as the white-tailed sea eagle and osprey, which are threatened by noxious substances.