Soil Biotechnology Laboratory

The soil biotechnology laboratory is currently under construction and is scheduled to be operational by late 2005. The mandate of this laboratory is to develop and standardize methods for measuring the effects of individual substances and contaminant mixtures on soil function and microbial communities. One priority for this laboratory will be the validation and standardization of methods for measuring the survival and persistence of microbial substances in soil. Creation of the soil biotechnology laboratory represents a step forward for Environment Canada in advancing environmental contaminant measurement in support of the federal contaminated sites program and the living organism component of the CEPA New Substances Notification Regulations using techniques from the rapidly evolving fields of environmental genomics and biotechnology.