Sampling sites (humans)

4 university cities as sampling areas.

Sampling in the human field is not designed to mirror the sampling areas selected for environmental specimens on the basis of ecosystems, because although human beings today are still part of their environment they are difficult to attribute to representative ecosystems due to their mobility, widely varying conditions at home and at work, and differentiated patterns of food distribution and consumption.

Clearly, therefore, only the selected sampling sites are of any regional relevance.

With individuals and groups moving home in a mobile society, almost the entire country is represented, although there has been a preference for covering rural and industrial areas.

Places

  • Important university city, as well as service and administration centre in Northrhine-Westphalia.
  • Small university town in a sparsely populated area of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
  • The biggest town in Saxony-Anhalt and an old industrial centre of the former GDR with considerable structural changes since 1990.
  • Ulm
    Small university city in southern Germany at the river Danube.

Specimen

  • Student groups with an even number of female and male students at the age of 20 to 29.

Analytes

Sampling period

1981 - 2021