Rasmussen Jes Jessen, Baattrup-Pedersen Annette, Larsen Søren Erik, Kronvang Brian
National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, 8600 Silkeborg, Denmark.
J Environ Monit. 2011 Apr;13(4):943-50. doi: 10.1039/c0em00745e. Epub 2011 Mar 9.
The combination of intensive agricultural activities and the close connectivity between land and stream emphasise the potential risk of pesticide exposure in Danish streams. Benthic macroinvertebrates are applied in the assessment of stream ecological status, and some sensitive species have been shown to respond strongly to brief pulses of pesticide contamination. In this study we investigate the impact of agriculturally derived pesticides on stream macroinvertebrate communities in Denmark. As a measure of toxic pressure we apply the Runoff Potential. We investigated a total of 212 streams. These were grouped into distinct classes according to the magnitude of pesticide contamination in the period from 2003-2006. A total of 24 different macroinvertebrate indices were applied to detect effects of pesticide runoff (e.g. the SPEAR-index and the number of EPT taxa). We found high predicted pesticide runoff in 39% of the streams, but we found no significant effect of predicted pesticide exposure on stream macroinvertebrate indices. We, additionally, examined the influence of a series of environmental parameters ranging from site scale to catchment scale on the macroinvertebrate community. Relative proportions of gravel, sand and silt in bed sediments explained most of the variation in macroinvertebrate indices as well as the upstream riparian habitat quality. We suggest that the Runoff Potential model overestimate pesticide runoff contamination in Danish streams due the presence of buffer strips enforced by Danish legislation. When pesticide runoff contamination is low to moderate, poor physical properties (indirectly related to agricultural activity) are the main impediment for the ecological quality of Danish streams.
集约化农业活动以及土地与溪流之间的紧密联系，凸显了丹麦溪流中农药暴露的潜在风险。底栖大型无脊椎动物被用于评估溪流生态状况，一些敏感物种已被证明对农药污染的短暂脉冲有强烈反应。在本研究中，我们调查了农业源农药对丹麦溪流大型无脊椎动物群落的影响。作为毒性压力的一种衡量方法，我们应用了径流潜力。我们总共调查了212条溪流。根据2003 - 2006年期间农药污染的程度，将这些溪流分为不同类别。总共应用了24种不同的大型无脊椎动物指标来检测农药径流的影响（例如SPEAR指数和EPT分类单元的数量）。我们发现39%的溪流中预测的农药径流较高，但我们发现预测的农药暴露对溪流大型无脊椎动物指标没有显著影响。此外，我们研究了一系列从站点尺度到集水区尺度的环境参数对大型无脊椎动物群落的影响。河床沉积物中砾石、沙子和淤泥的相对比例解释了大型无脊椎动物指标的大部分变化以及上游河岸栖息地质量。我们认为，由于丹麦立法实施了缓冲带，径流潜力模型高估了丹麦溪流中的农药径流污染。当农药径流污染程度较低到中等时，不良的物理性质（与农业活动间接相关）是丹麦溪流生态质量的主要障碍。
