Huacheng XuAssociated Professor
State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment,
Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
Biography
Education
2008-2011, Tongji University, China, Ph D,
2005-2008, Qingdao Technological University, China, M.S.
Working experience
2016-2017, Great Lakes Research Facility, USA, Visiting Scientist
2013-present, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Associated Professor
2011-2013, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Assistant Professor
Research Interest
The increased occurrence of algal blooms in lakes has attracted intensive attention worldwide. Algal extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) represent the organic matters that are excreted during the cell metabolism and affect significantly the physicochemical properties of the microbial cells. My first scientific area would be the characterization of algal EPS and the insights into the role of EPS to algal aggregation, which can definitely enhance our understanding toward the bloom formation.
Due to the properties of poly-functional groups and multi-components, EPS or dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic ecosystems can bind with contaminates (including heavy metals, nanoparticles, PAHs, etc) through adsorption, complexing, and electrostatic/hydrogen attraction, and resultantly influence the environmental behavior and bioavailability of these contaminates. Thus my second scientific area is the interaction between EPS/DOM and contaminates via using couples of novel techniques (including spectroscopic and microscopic), which can reveal the binding mechanism on a molecular level.
Compared to the bulk or low molecular weight DOM in aquatic environments, those with the high molecule weigh, named colloidal organic matter, has received increasing attention in recent years due to its larger specific surface area and the higher contaminate binding potential. Information on the characterization, distribution, degradation process, aggregation behavior, and contaminate binding potential is essential to the understanding on the biogeochemical process of organic carbon, food web, and nutrients in aquatic ecosystems, which is my third scientific area.