Use of nuclear analytical techniques in bioenvironmental studies

Bioenvironmental studies remain to be one of the most important fields of applied analytical chemistry. At present time, more than 50% of nuclear analytical studies deal with bioenvironmental investigations. The first period of utilizing nuclear analytical methods in bioenvironmental sciences could be characterized as "purely analytical," in which these methods were used for determination of sample composition in competition with other non-nuclear methods. Later, the outstanding advantages of the former methods were used for more detailed description of systems to be studied, including element speciation, spatial distribution, and so forth. The present period not only develops approaches of previous periods but also considers the bioenvironmental processes more widely and is focused on their dynamics. In this field, a large extent of utilizing various nuclear analytical techniques can be expected as well.