Dr. Aurea Chiaia Hernández

Biography

Aurea C. Chiaia-Hernández is a leader in the Organic Micropollutants Unit at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern. She specializes in organic trace analytics, particularly in identifying and conducting non-target screening of organic contaminants using LC-HRMS. Her research focuses on the fate and behavior of organic contaminants in natural systems, employing sediment analysis to reconstruct historical records of organic contaminant deposition in the Anthropocene. Chiaia-Hernández investigates the temporal and spatial distribution of contaminants within lake sediments, with an emphasis on the long-term persistence of pesticides in agricultural soils. Her research extends to assessing the effects of environmental contaminants on microbial communities and developing novel analytical methods that apply multiproxy workflows for detecting and identifying a wide range of organic compounds in natural archives spanning over a century. A significant goal of her work includes characterizing the Anthropocene as it relates to the transport, resuspension, transformation, and deposition of organic contaminants in various environmental compartments through high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS). Furthermore, her research examines the occurrence, fate, and environmental impact of plant protection products (organic pesticides) on soil sediments and their effects on microbial communities.

Research Interests