Abstract
Quantifying synergistic environmental effects in water contamination is still an open issue. Here, we have analyzed geolocalized data of pollutants recorded in 2018 in surface and groundwater of Lombardy, one of the areas with the highest agricultural production rates, not only in Italy, but also in Europe. Both herbicides and insecticides are present at concentration levels above the legal limit, mainly in surface waters. Geolocalized analysis allows us to identify interesting areas particularly affected by a combination of multiple pesticides. We thus investigated possible synergistic effects of these compounds on the environment, using the alga C. reinhardtii as a biosensor. Our results show that exposure for 7 days to four compounds, that we found present together at high concentration in surface waters, was able to induce a stress in the algae, as indicated by the presence of palmelloids. Our work results in a pipeline that could easily be exported to monitor other territories in Italy and abroad.
Highlights
Quantifying synergistic environmental effects in water contamination is still an open issue
We investigated the quantity of herbicides and insecticides in surface waters and groundwater recorded by ARPA in Lombardy in the year 2018
Herbicides and insecticides represent 33% of the total parameters analyzed for surface waters and 36% for groundwater
Summary
Quantifying synergistic environmental effects in water contamination is still an open issue. We have analyzed geolocalized data of pollutants recorded in 2018 in surface and groundwater of Lombardy, one of the areas with the highest agricultural production rates, in Italy, and in Europe Both herbicides and insecticides are present at concentration levels above the legal limit, mainly in surface waters. Our study intends to create a pipeline for the geolocalization of water contaminants using a big data approach to identify the most abundant compounds present in waters, their co-presence and the hotspot sites where they are found. This pipeline allows us to monitor the territories and helps possible interventions to correct possible contamination.
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