Abstract
Passive air samplers were deployed at six locations across the province of Manitoba, Canada, to represent areas with, or at various distances from, agricultural herbicide applications. During the growing seasons in 2008 and 2009, the four southern sites always demonstrated mixtures of current-use herbicides (CUHs) in air, but CUHs were not detected at the two northern sites that were 400 and 800 km away from Manitoba’s most northern boundary of agricultural herbicide applications. The masses of the CUHs detected in the air were most strongly positively associated with their estimated masses typically applied in a ~100-km2 township area surrounding the sampling sites (r = 0.70 to 0.74) and to a lesser extent with their estimated mass applied in incrementally larger areas (r = 0.53 to 0.59). The masses of CUHs detected in air were also significantly positively associated with their estimated masses applied at a provincial level (r = 0.45 to 0.52) but not with their reported half-lives in air, suggesting that a system of maintaining records of herbicide use data, even at a coarse scale, can strongly improve agri-environmental risk assessments. Of the nine CUHs detected, MCPA [(4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy)acetic acid] and bromoxynil, which are widely applied in Manitoba agriculture, were the only herbicides detected at all four southern sites. Triallate and metolachlor which have low use in Manitoba were the only CUHs detected in the winter months, confirming that these herbicides are relatively persistent in the air and may undergo long-range transport. Four passive air samplers, each installed 0.5 to 1.5 km apart at the same location, showed variations in the herbicide masses detected with the coefficient of variation ranging from 10 % for bromoxynil in 2008 to 137 % for MCPA in 2009. These variations were particularly observed not only for the two herbicides applied on-site (MCPA and clopyralid) but also for four herbicides transported into the area from longer distances (2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), bromoxynil, ethalfluralin, and triallate). Future regional-scale research should therefore consider deploying multiple sets of passive air samplers at a site to obtain a more representative measure of herbicide air concentrations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (2013). Agricultural climate of Manitoba. http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/weather/agricultural-climate-of-mb.html. Accessed 25 June 2013.
Brimble, S., Bacchus, P., & Caux, P. Y. (2005). Pesticide utilization in Canada: A compilation of current sales and use data. Ottawa: Environment Canada.
Byer, J. D., Struger, J., Sverko, E., Klawunn, P., & Todd, A. (2011). Spatial and seasonal variations in atrazine and metolachlor surface water concentrations in Ontario (Canada) using ELISA. Chemosphere, 82(8), 1155–1160.
Caldwell, D. (2007). Quantification of spray drift from aerial applications of pesticide. (Masters Thesis). Retrieved from University of Saskatchewan Library Electronic Theses & Dissertations. http://library.usask.ca.proxy1.lib.umanitoba.ca/theses/available/etd-03312007-125445/.
Cessna, A. J., et al. (2010). The Canadian indicator of risk of water contamination by pesticides. In A. Lefebvre, W. Eilers, & B. Chunn (Eds.), Environmental sustainability of canadian agriculture: Agri-Environmental indicator. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa: Ontario Report Series e Report #3.
Donald, D. B., Gurprasad, N. P., Quinnett-Abbott, L., & Cash, K. (2001). Diffuse geographic distribution of herbicides in northern prairie wetlands. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 20, 273–279.
Goolsby, D. A., Thurman, E. M., Pomes, M. L., Meyer, M. T., & Battaglin, W. A. (1997). Herbicides and their metabolites in rainfall: origin, transport, and deposition patterns across the midwestern and northeastern United States, 1990-1991. Environmental Science and Technology, 31, 1325–1333.
Grover, R., Shewchuk, S. R., Cessna, A. J., Smith, A. E., & Hunter, J. H. (1985). Fate of 2,4-D iso-octyl ester after application to a wheat field. Journal of Environmental Quality, 14, 203–210.
Hayward, S. J., Gouin, T., & Wania, F. (2010). Comparison of four active and passive sampling techniques for pesticides in air. Environmental Science and Technology, 44(9), 3410–3416.
Hill, B., Harker, K., Hasselback, P., Inaba, D., Byers, S., & Moyer, J. (2001). Herbicides in Alberta rainfall as affected by location, use and season: 1999 to 2000. Water Quality Research Journal of Canada, 37, 515–542.
Hoferkamp, L., Hermanson, M. H., & Muir, D. C. G. (2010). Current use pesticides in Arctic media; 2000-2007. Science of the Total Environment, 408, 2985–2994.
Kumar, Y. (2001). Pesticides in ambient air in Alberta. Report prepared for the Air Research Users Group, Alberta Environment, Edmonton, Alta., ISBN 0-7785-1889-4.
Larney, F. J., Cessna, A. J., & Bullock, M. S. (1999). Herbicide transport on wind-eroded sediment. Journal of Environmental Quality, 2001(28), 1412–1421.
Manitoba Agriculture and Food (2006). Guide to crop protection; weeds; plant diseases; insects. http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/guides-and-publications/.
Messing, P. G., Farenhorst, A., Waite, D. T., McQueen, D. A. R., Sproull, J. F., Humphries, D. A., & Thompson, L. L. (2011). Predicting wetland contamination from atmospheric deposition measurements of pesticides in the Canadian Prairie Pothole region. Atmospheric Environment, 45, 7227–7234.
Messing, P. G., Farenhorst, A., Waite, D. T., & Sproull, J. F. (2012). Influence of usage and chemical-physical properties on the atmospheric transport and deposition of pesticides to agricultural regions of Manitoba, Canada. Chemosphere, 45, 7227–7234.
Messing, P. G., Farenhorst, A., Waite, D. T., & Sproull, J. F. (2014). Air concentrations of currently used herbicides and legacy compounds in the Canadian prairies, subarctic, and arctic. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part B 49(5), 338–343.
Muir, D., & Zheng, J. (2007). Environmental trends monitoring of new chemical contaminants in the Canadian High Arctic via ice and snow cores. In S. L. Smith & J. Stow (Eds.), Synopsis of research conducted under the 2006–2007, Northern Contaminants Program (pp. 194–202). Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
Pesticide Properties Database (PPDB) developed by the Agriculture & Environment Research Unit (AERU) (2012). University of Hertfordshire, funded by UK national sources and the EU-funded FOOTPRINT project (FP6-SSP-022704).
Rice, C. P., & Chernyak, S. M. (1997). Marine Arctic fog: an accumulator of current-use pesticide. Chemosphere, 35, 867–878.
Shen, L., Wania, F., Lei, Y. D., Teixeira, C., Muir, D. C. G., & Bidleman, T. F. (2005). Atmospheric distribution and long-range transport behavior of organochlorine pesticides in North America. Environmental Science and Technology, 39, 409–420.
Shoeib, M., & Harner, T. (2002). Characterization and comparison of three passive air samplers for persistent organic pollutants. Environmental Science and Technology, 36, 4142–4151.
U. S. EPA, EPI Suite (2013). Office of Pollution Prevention Toxics and Syracuse Research Corporation.
Waite, D. T., Bailey, P., Sproull, J. F., Quiring, D. V., Chau, D. F., Bailey, J., & Cessna, A. J. (2005). Atmospheric concentrations and dry and wet deposits of some herbicides current-use on the Canadian Prairies. Chemosphere, 58, 693–703.
Welch, M.A. (2012). Weeding out the chemicals. Winnipeg Free Press [Online]. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/weeding-out-the-chemicals-152134735.html. Accessed 26 May 2012.
Wilson, J. L. (2012). Agricultural pesticide use trends in Manitoba and 2,4-D fate in soil. (PhD Thesis). University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Retrieved from University of Manitoba Library electronic theses & dissertations: http://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca//handle/1993/8861.
Yao, Y., Tuduri, L., Harner, T., Blanchard, P., Waite, D., Poissant, L., Murphy, C., Belzer, W., Aulagnier, F., Li, Y.-F., & Sverko, E. (2006). Spatial and temporal distribution of pesticide air concentrations in Canadian agricultural regions. Atmospheric Environment, 40, 4339–4351.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada for providing financial research support for this project, including an Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate scholarship to Paul Messing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Messing, P.G., Farenhorst, A., Waite, D.T. et al. Current-Use Herbicides in Air as Influenced by Their Estimated Agricultural Use at Various Distances from Six Sampling Locations. Water Air Soil Pollut 225, 2013 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-014-2013-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-014-2013-y