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Large-Scale Agriculture and Environmental Pollution of Ground and Surface Water and Sediment by Pesticides in the Brazilian Amazon: the Case of the Santarém Region

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Abstract

The current development model of the agricultural sector in Brazil has considerable potential to cause negative environmental impacts, including the pollution of aquatic ecosystems, as it may contribute to the intensification of erosive processes on deforested soils, to the leaching of eroded materials, and to the consequent siltation of waterbodies with soil particles containing environmental pollutants. We aimed at assessing the occurrence of several pesticide residues in aquatic ecosystems located near large soybean crops of the Santarém region, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. By adopting a methodological approach combining analytical and environmental chemistry, 10 groundwater samples, 18 surface water, and 15 drainage bottom sediment samples, all collected in streams from the study region, were analyzed. The study included a distributed sampling procedure covering an area of approximately 20 km2, and the potential risks of the studied pollutants and their implications for the region were likewise examined and critically discussed. Results indicate that active ingredients such as the herbicides atrazine and metolachlor were detected in the waters, as well as organochlorine insecticides such as DDTs and endosulfan. The spatialization of the resulting pesticide concentrations in water suggests that the contamination would not be punctual but would rather come from various point sources. As for the sediments, glyphosate and DDT contamination was likewise pervasive. Our findings suggest the need of elucidating the sediment and water polluting effects of large-scale soybean crops in the Amazonian rainforest.

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Funding

Research funding was provided by the Canada-Brazil Awards–Joint Research Projects Program. This study was financially supported by the Capes/DFATD Program (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Brazil/Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Canada), through project number 002/16, granted under the Call # 002/2015 of the Capes General Program for International Cooperation. The first author was the recipient of a full doctoral fellowship by Capes at CDS/UnB in Brazil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Brasília (UnB), Brasília, Brazil

    Moema Guimarães de Azeredo Morgado

  2. Faculty UnB at Planaltina, University of Brasília (UnB), Planaltina, DF, 73.345-010, Brazil

    Carlos José Sousa Passos

  3. Institute of Geosciences, University of Brasília (UnB), Brasília, Brazil

    Jérémie Garnier

  4. Vale do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri Federal University, Diamantina, Brazil

    Luana Alves de Lima

  5. Evandro Chagas Institute (IEC/SVS/MS), Ananindeua, Brazil

    Rosivaldo de Alcântara Mendes

  6. Institute of Environmental Sciences & GEOTOP, University of Quebec at Montreal (UQÀM), Montreal, Canada

    Émile Samson-Brais & Marc Lucotte

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  1. Moema Guimarães de Azeredo Morgado
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de Azeredo Morgado, M.G., Passos, C.J.S., Garnier, J. et al. Large-Scale Agriculture and Environmental Pollution of Ground and Surface Water and Sediment by Pesticides in the Brazilian Amazon: the Case of the Santarém Region. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 150 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06152-8

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