title: Pesticides in Portuguese surface and ground waters.
abstract: Pesticides used in Portuguese agricultural areas have been found in surface and ground waters. In the surface water collected in three river basins from 1983 to 1999, insecticides and herbicides were detected from the monitored pesticides, particularly atrazine, chlorfenvinphos (Z+E), alpha- and beta-endosulfan, lindane, molinate and simazine, reaching the maximum values, respectively, of 0.63, 31.6, 0.18 microg/L (alpha-endosulfan), 0.18 microg/L (beta-endosulfan), 0.24, 48 and 0.3 microg/L. In the ground water collected from the wells of seven agricultural areas from 1991 to 1998, several monitored herbicides were detected: alachlor, atrazine, metolachlor, metribuzine and simazine, reaching the maximum concentration values of 13, 30, 56, 1.4 and 0.4 microg/L, respectively. The herbicides more frequently detected were atrazine (64%), simazine (45%) and alachlor (25%). Other than these, the monitored pesticides can be present in Portuguese surface and ground waters. Therefore, to improve the analytical conditions, the use of multiresidue methods and automated techniques are desirable in future work.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1399 Lisboa Codex, Portugal.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cerejeira
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Viana
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Batista
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Valério
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Silva-Fernandes
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis*; D011174:Portugal; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D010575:Pesticides; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical