Abstract
Sustainable agriculture practices and integrated pest management for avoiding environmental pollution are necessary to maintain a high yield in vineyard areas. Pesticide residues in groundwater in a vineyard area of La Rioja (Spain) have been evaluated in previous years, and they could now have varied after farmers have adopted the different measures recommended. Accordingly, this research's objectives were (i) to evaluate the occurrence and seasonal distribution (spring, summer, and autumn samplings) of pesticides (36) plus their degradation products (DP) (11) in water and soil samples (23 + 15) in La Rioja (Northern Spain), and (ii) to compare the current water quality (2019) with that determined previously (2011). A multi-residue method based on solid phase extraction (for water samples) or solid liquid extraction (for soil samples) and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) was used to determine and quantify pesticides. The results reveal the presence in waters of 30 compounds from those selected (15 fungicides + 2 DP, 7 insecticides + 1 DP, and 3 herbicides +2 DP), with 14 of them at concentrations > 0.1 μg L−1 (water quality threshold for human consumption). The highest number of compounds was detected in summer (waters) and spring (soils). The pesticides most frequently detected in water samples were the fungicides metalaxyl, tebuconazole, and boscalid, with the last one being the compound found in the highest number of soil samples. The comparison of water pollution in 2011 and 2019 indicates a significant decrease in the total concentration of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides in 95–100%, 76–90%, and 42–85% of samples in the three campaigns, respectively. The results indicate that an optimized and sustainable use of pesticides in intensive and high-yield agricultural areas could reduce environmental pollution.
Highlights
The growing concern to ensure economic progress compatible with the environment prompted the United Nations in 2015 to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to promote prosperity while pro tecting the planet (UN, 2019)
The fungicides cyprodinil, azoxystrobin, pyrimethanil, and penconazole; the herbicides ethofumesate, pendimethalin, oxy fluorfen, atrazine and their degradation products DEHA, DIA, DIHA, HA and DEA, and the insecticides acephate, diazinon, dimethoate and the degradation product chlorpyrifos-oxon were not detected, some of them had been found in previous water samplings in La Rioja region (Herrero-Hernandez et al, 2013, 2016, 2017) and in other Spanish agricultural areas (Herrero-Hernandez et al, 2020) or in surface water ecosystems (Ccanccapa et al, 2016; Rico et al, 2019)
It is noteworthy that several pesticides, such as the fungicides nuarimol, fenbuconazole, tri floxystrobin, flutriafol, and cyproconazole, and the insecticides azinphos-methyl and hexythiazox were only detected in the spring sampling campaign, and at very low concentrations (Table 1)
Summary
The growing concern to ensure economic progress compatible with the environment prompted the United Nations in 2015 to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to promote prosperity while pro tecting the planet (UN, 2019). Pesticides are used to protect and improve crop yields, with the average world consumption being 2.68 kg per ha of cultivated land (FAOSTAT, 2019). The marketing of these products in the European Union (EU) was 362,626 t in 2017, with Spain accounting for the highest percentage of sales (72,118 t), followed by France, Italy, and Germany (MAPAMA, 2017). The fact that pesticide residues may remain in the environment after their application has been widely re ported and studied in the world (de Souza et al, 2020)
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