Glyphosate pollution of surface runoff, stream water, and drinking water resources in Southeast Brazil

Glyphosate-based herbicides can be harmful to the environment and human health. Especially in developing countries, these herbicides are often used indiscriminately in agricultural and urban areas. Here, we optimized a simple and efficient flow injection-based spectrophotometric method to monitor en...
Ausführliche Beschreibung

Glyphosate-based herbicides can be harmful to the environment and human health. Especially in developing countries, these herbicides are often used indiscriminately in agricultural and urban areas. Here, we optimized a simple and efficient flow injection-based spectrophotometric method to monitor environmentally relevant glyphosate concentrations in surface waters. The method was then used to assess the environmental mobility of glyphosate in Southeast Brazil by monitoring surface runoff from experimental agricultural soil plots that received glyphosate applications in 2015. Further, water samples from low-order streams were collected in five agricultural, urban, and natural areas, as well as from the 5th-order Rio das Mortes during the rainy season. Finally, 20 drinking water sources were sampled in urban, rural, and agricultural areas. Runoff from reference plots without glyphosate application showed concentrations below the method’s detection limit of 0.49 mg.$ L^{−1} $, whereas runoff from plots with standard glyphosate application had concentrations between 1.24 and 6.1 mg.$ L^{−1} $. Similarly, concentrations in natural stream water were below the detection limit, whereas agricultural streams had concentrations of up to 3.7 mg.$ L^{−1} $ (average: 0.97 mg.$ L^{−1} $). In an agricultural stream monitored weekly, concentration peaks were observed after glyphosate applications by farmers, and concentrations were correlated to stream discharge. Urban streams had concentrations of up to 5.8 mg.$ L^{−1} $ (average: 2.6 mg.$ L^{−1} $), but samples from the catchment’s major river were mostly below detection limits, illustrating the dilution of urban and agricultural runoff in high-order rivers. In the sampled drinking water resources, glyphosate pollution occurred mainly in the rainy season, with detectable concentrations between 0.5 and 8.7 mg.$ L^{−1} $ in 80% of the sampled drinking water sources. In conclusion, our results suggest considerable environmental mobility of glyphosate in the studied Southeast Brazilian catchment. Substantial pollution, well above national and international limits, was detected in surface runoff, stream water, and drinking water resources. Graphical Abstract Ausführliche Beschreibung

Autor*in:	Lima, Igor B. [verfasserIn] Boëchat, Iola G. Fernandes, Marco D. Monteiro, José A. F. Rivaroli, Luciano Gücker, Björn

Format:	E-Artikel
Sprache:	Englisch

Erschienen:	2022

Schlagwörter:	Herbicide Agriculture Chemical weeding Water pollution Tropical catchment

Anmerkung:

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Übergeordnetes Werk:	Enthalten in: Environmental science and pollution research - Berlin : Springer, 1994, 30(2022), 10 vom: 14. Nov., Seite 27030-27040
Übergeordnetes Werk:	volume:30 ; year:2022 ; number:10 ; day:14 ; month:11 ; pages:27030-27040

Links:	Volltext

DOI / URN:	10.1007/s11356-022-24167-2

Katalog-ID:	SPR049601911