Ecological Risk Assessment of Pesticide Residues in Agricultural Lake : Risk Quotients and Probabilistic Approach

Salinity is a major problem in many regions of Australia, and is predicted to get considerably worse over the next 30–50 years. Most effort has focused on the terrestrial environment, and specifically on the loss of productive agricultural land. Increased salinity can also result in unwanted changes to aquatic ecosystems in rivers, streams and particularly wetlands.This paper first reviews the importance of assessing risks from salinity increases in a catchment context, and then introduces a disturbance–response conceptual model to assist with the understanding of such situations. Two factors are shown to be particularly important in assessing which freshwater systems will be most susceptible to increases in salinity—the location of the systems in the landscape, and the current ecological condition of the system. The resilience of an ecosystem to salinity disturbances is shown to be a useful concept which with further knowledge may be incorporated into risk-assessment approaches.The development of a new ecological risk assessment approach for assessing risks to aquatic systems in the Goulburn–Broken catchment from increases in salinity over the medium (20 years) and long (100 years) term is reported. The risks to the biota in Hughes Creek, a tributary of the Goulburn River, are assessed by using a probabilistic approach. Current salinity levels in the creek present a low risk to the biota.Finally, the paper addresses the challenge of making the ecological risk assessment method more quantitative by discussing the following two key aspects: how to better quantify the linkages between the key stressors and the biotic components, and how to better handle uncertainties.

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Ecological Risk Assessment of Soil Heavy Metals and Pesticide Residues in Tea Plantations

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture10020047 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 47 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Haifang He ◽

Longqing Shi ◽

Guang Yang ◽

Minsheng You ◽

Liette Vasseur

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Risk Assessment ◽

Ecological Risk ◽

Ecological Risk Assessment ◽

Pesticide Residues ◽

Risk Index ◽

First Grade ◽

Risk Level ◽

Pollution Indices ◽

Tea Plantations

Tea plantations have used many synthetic chemicals to ensure performance and control of pests. This has led to increased contamination of soils and reduced tea growth. We assessed the levels of heavy metals, including Cd, Cr, Pb, Cu, Ni, Zn, Hg, As, and pesticide residues, such as HCHs, biphenyl chrysanthemum ester, methamidophos, imidacloprid, permethrin, in the soil of tea plantations of Taiwan, Tibet, Guangdong, and Fujian. The Potential Ecological Risk Index and the Nemerow comprehensive pollution index were used to analyze the data. The results showed that risk indices in Tibet, Guangdong and Fuzhou were considered as moderate ecological harm level. Ecological risk assessment index of Anxi organic and Anxi conventional tea gardens suggested a “low” risk level. The Nemerow comprehensive pollution indices for soil pesticide residues in the tea plantations of Taiwan, Tibet, Anxi organic and Anxi conventional were considered mild. Guangdong and Fuzhou had values suggesting “slight pollution” levels. According to National Soil Environmental Quality Standard (GB15618-1995), soil in tea plantations in Taiwan, Tibet, and Anxi conventional matched the national first grade of soil quality and those from Guangdong, Fuzhou, and Anxi organic tea garden matched the national second grade.

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