Pesticide residues in agricultural topsoil from the Hainan tropical riverside basin: Determination, distribution, and relationships with planting patterns and surface water

Abstract

Pesticide residues were assessed in rice-vegetable rotation topsoil from tropical riverside basin. The 256 tropical topsoil samples from the Nandu River Basin (NRB) and Wanquan River Basin (WRB) in Hainan (China) were taken from 2018 to 2019. A total of 32 current-use pesticides (CUPs) and nine legacy pesticides (LPs) were detected using a method based on a QuEChERS technique. The highest residues were from the fungicide carbendazim (257.2 μg/kg) and the insecticide imidacloprid (139.4 μg/kg). The nine LPs (8 organochlorine pesticides and chlorpyrifos) were detected in 84.4% of the samples with mean concentrations ranging from 0.02 to 675.4 μg/kg. The two most commonly detected pesticides were imidacloprid and emamectin benzoate with detection rates of 96.8% and 91.8%, respectively. The highest total concentration of pesticides from the NRB and WRB was detected in July. The highest average number of multi-residues (16) was recorded in January, compared to 14 and 12 in July and November, respectively. There was a significant correlation between the multiple pesticide residues in soil and vegetable planting types (p < 0.01). There was a significant positive correlation between the pesticide number in topsoil and the pesticide number in water (p < 0.01). The multiple pesticide residues found in surface water were consistent with those in topsoil, suggesting a potential risk of water contamination in the rice-vegetable rotation.