Sarick Matzen

GFI Fellow - Class of 2016

Ph.D. Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy and Management
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/UC Berkeley

Project

Investigating Arsenic Bioavailability in the Context of Urban Agriculture

Description

This project will analyze arsenic bioaccessibility and plant availability in contaminated soils from a proposed community orchard site in Berkeley, by constructing a laboratory analog of a human digestive tract based on recent models, conduct sequential extractions and conduct basic plant availability extractions.  

Results will inform other Berkeley Lab efforts on arsenic removal from water with investigation into behavior of arsenic in soils. These results will help close the range – spanning three orders of magnitude – in guidelines coming from different EPA offices for safe levels of arsenic in soil.

View poster (PDF)