Distribution characteristics and risk assessment of neonicotinoid insecticides in planting soils of mainland China

Abstract

Neonicotinoid insecticides (NEOs) are generally used in crop production. Their widespread use on agricultural soil has raised concerns regarding their health and ecological risks. Previous studies have reported the contamination of the farmland soils with NEOs from the coastal provinces of China. Information about NEOs at the national scale as well as the residues of their metabolites are relatively unknown. In this study, 391 soil samples were collected from 31 provinces in nine agricultural regions across mainland China, and the concentrations of ten parent NEOs and three metabolites were determined. At least one NEO was detected in all soil samples, with the sum of the NEOs (ΣNEOs) ranging from 0.04 to 702 μg/kg. The most common parent NEO and metabolite are imidacloprid and imidacloprid-urea, respectively. The concentrations of NEOs in coastal regions at the same latitude were higher than those in inland regions. The NEOs were further compared in the soils of seven types of monocrops and three types of multiple crops (multicrops) (i.e., two types of crops were produced in succession or simultaneously within the decade of this study). The results showed that the highest NEO residues were found in soils planted with vegetables (VE), fruits (FR), and cotton (CO) monocrops and VE & FR multicrops. Differences in NEO concentrations were observed between soils planted with monocrops and multicrops. For example, VE & FR > VE > vegetables and grains (VE & GR) > GR. Moreover, the health risks posed by NEOs in agricultural soils in China are extremely low, and the ecological risks require urgent attention. Particularly, individual NEOs in > 45% of agricultural soils in mainland China may have sublethal effects on two non-target species (HQnon-target > 0.01).