Herlinde Noppe, An Ghekiere, Tim Verslycke, Eric De Wulf, Karolien Verheyden, Els Monteyne, Karen Polfliet, Peter Van Caeter, Colin R. Janssen and Hubert F. De Brabander, Ditribution and ecotoxicity of chlorotriazines in the Scheldt estuary (B-Nl), Environmental Pollution, in press
As part of the Endis-Risks project, the current study describes the occurrence of the chlorotriazine pesticides atrazine, simazine and terbutylazine in water, sediment and suspended matter over a period of 4 years (2002-2005). Atrazine was found to be the herbicide exhibiting the highest concentration in the different matrices, varying from 10 to 736 ng/l in water and from 5 up to 10 ng/g in suspended matter. Simazine and terbutylazine were detected at lower concentrations in water, up to 313 ng/l and 261 ng/l, respectively. Traces of the targeted pesticides were also detected in sediments, but these were below the limit of quantification. As part of an ecotoxicological assessment, we studied the potential effect of atrazine on molting of the mysid Neomysis integer (Crustacea:Mysidacea), a resident invertebrate of the Scheldt Estuary. Following chronic exposure (~3 weeks), atrazine did not affect mysid molting at environmentally relevant concentrations (up to 1 µg/l). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2006.09.016 |
