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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12207/6190
Title: | Pesticide water variability and prioritization: The first steps towards improving water management strategies in irrigation hydro-agriculture areas |
Authors: | Alves-Ferreira, Júnia Vara, Manuel García Catarino, Adriana Martins, Inês Mourinha, Clarisse Fabião, Marta Costa, Maria João Barbieri, Maria Vittoria de Alda, M Lopez Palma, Patrícia |
Keywords: | Biodiversity Insecticides Irrigation Reservoirs (water) Environmental risk assessment Water management Water pollution Water quality Guadiana Basin (Portugal) |
Issue Date: | 24-Jan-2024 |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Citation: | Alves-Ferreira, J., Vara, M. G., Catarino, A., Martins, I., Mourinha, C., Fabião, M., Costa, M. J., Barbieri, M. V., de Alda, M. L., & Palma, P. (2024). Pesticide water variability and prioritization: The first steps towards improving water management strategies in irrigation hydro-agriculture areas. Science of the Total Environment, 917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170304 |
Abstract: | The presence of pesticides in aquatic ecosystems poses significant risks to non-target organisms, necessitating monitoring and environmental risk assessment. This study aimed to evaluate the dynamics and environmental risk of pesticides in a hydro-agricultural area with intensive agricultural practices, in the Mediterranean region (South of Portugal). Seasonality and location influenced pesticide numbers and concentrations, with the highest levels observed during the dry season. Triazines, phenylureas, and organophosphates were the predominant pesticide classes, with terbuthylazine, bentazone, terbutryn, diazinon, and metolachlor exhibiting the highest detection frequencies (68 % to 72 %). Notably, 44 % of the quantified pesticides are no longer authorized in Portugal, with 33 % posing a high environmental risk. Some insecticides, including imidacloprid, methiocarb, and malathion, were occasionally detected at concentrations that posed high risks to the aquatic ecosystem (RQ ≥ 1). Irgarol, an algicide used in irrigation canals, presented a high risk in 91 % of the analysed samples. The study's distribution profile of pesticides revealed a significant transportation of these compounds from reservoirs to irrigation hydrants, establishing them as a secondary source of crop and environmental contamination. Additionally, the assessment of spatial distribution and environmental risk allowed for the identification of specific pollutants in different locations, prioritizing them based on their ecotoxicological risk to aquatic ecosystems. These findings reinforce the importance of implementing management measures at the level of hydro-agricultural areas, helping to stop the cycle of pesticide contamination. Only this type of strategy will make it possible to protect water quality, biodiversity and the health of citizens, contributing to the European Union's objectives of improving the condition of freshwater bodies and promoting the sustainable use of pesticides. |
Description: | The work is co-funded by National funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. (projects UIDB/04683/2020 and UIDP/04683/2020), the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development through the FitoFarmGest Operational Group (PDR2020-101-030926), and the Government of Catalonia (2017 SGR 01404). Adriana Catarino acknowledges a doctoral scholarship funded by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (202304004.BD). We acknowledge the E-OBS dataset from the EU-FP6 project UERRA (https://www.uerra.eu) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service, and the data providers in the ECA&D project (https://www.ecad.eu). This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Peer reviewed: | yes |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12207/6190 |
metadata.dc.identifier.doi: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170304 |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170304 |
Appears in Collections: | D-TCA - Artigos em revistas indexadas à WoS/Scopus |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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PesticideWaterVariability_pdfa.pdf | 711.73 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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