Environmental specimen banks - An important column in environmental observation

Natural events as well as human activities are affecting the environment and even with large-scale monitoring programs it is not possible to completely assess the state of the environment. But a documentation of the environmental status with respect to its chemical composition can be realized with systematically collected representative environmental samples, which can be stored for decades at very low temperatures almost without degradation. Such 'banking activity' allows a current environmental monitoring and also a retrospective analysis for the determination of components which have not been analyzed at the time of sampling because of a lack in analytical techniques or because they have not been known or considered environmentally relevant. The concept of environmental specimen banking and general procedures are described. Various examples illustrate the many facets of such activities.