Field Trip to the Rio Tinto in Spain

September 16, 2025 / Dr. Ilka Schwittlinsky

A little more than a year and a half after our last excursion to Rio Tinto, we took another group of students from the M.Sc. WASTE program to Spain to study the river and its unique microbial communities.

During their five-day stay in Spain, Sergey and Adrián introduced students to the extreme environmental conditions found at the Rio Tinto and explained why this site is studied by microbiologists. They also taught students the basics of microbiological field work. Among other, students learned to collect and process water samples as well as measuring the physico-chemical parameters of the water. Together with students from the University of Tübingen, they also collected sediment samples. 

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