Distribution and toxicity of sediment‐associated pesticides in urban and agricultural waterways from Illinois, USA

Abstract

A statewide investigation of insecticide presence and sediment toxicity was conducted in Illinois, USA, from June to August 2008. Twenty sediment samples were collected from urban areas throughout Illinois, and 49 sediment samples were collected from 14 agriculture-dominated counties in central and southern Illinois. Ten-day sediment toxicity tests were conducted using the amphipod Hyalella azteca, and 59% of the urban sites and 2% of the agricultural locations sampled caused significant mortality in the amphipods. The field sediments were analyzed for 29 pesticides, including 19 organochlorines, one organophosphate, and nine pyrethroids. The detection frequencies of organochlorines, chlorpyrifos, and pyrethroids were 95, 65, and 95%, respectively, for urban sites, and 45, 6.1, and 47%, respectively, for agricultural sites. Based on toxic unit analysis, bifenthrin was the main contributor to the detected mortality in urban sediments. The present study provides the first broad assessment of pesticide prevalence in both urban and agriculture areas in Illinois.

Distribution and toxicity of current-use insecticides in sediment of a lake receiving waters from areas in transition to urbanization

“…Similar to the current study, SPs have been frequently detected in sediments from California (Amweg et al, 2006;Holmes et al, 2008;Trimble et al, 2009;You et al, 2008;Weston et al, 2004Weston et al, , 2005, Texas (Hintzen et al, 2009), and Illinois (Ding et al, 2010) in USA, as well as the PRD in China . The OPs, however, were detected at lower frequencies and concentrations in those studies.…”

“…On the other hand, the mean S 8 SPs concentration in sediment from Chaohu Lake was significantly lower than that in more urbanized areas in previous studies including the PRD in China , and Illinois (Ding et al, 2010) and California (Amweg et al, 2006;Holmes et al, 2008;Weston et al, 2005) in USA, while it was comparable to that in Texas, USA (Hintzen et al, 2009) (Fig. 3a).…”

“…The LC50 values were acquired from the literature (Amweg et al, 2005;Ding et al, 2010Ding et al, , 2011 and presented in Table S1. The LC50 values for terbufos, tebupirimfos, and malathion were not found, therefore they were excluded from the estimation of TUs.…”

“…Permethrin, esfenvalerate, and cypermethrin were the most frequently detected and the most abundant SPs in sediment from Chaohu Lake, with cypermethrin and permethrin being frequently found at elevated concentrations in the PRD . In USA, the dominated sediment-associated SPs in concentration were bifenthrin, permethrin, and esfenvalerate in Texas (Hintzen et al, 2009), bifenthrin, permethrin, and cypermethrin in California (Amweg et al, 2006;Holmes et al, 2008;Weston et al, 2004Weston et al, , 2005, and permethrin in Illinois (Ding et al, 2010). Permethrin was prevalent in all locations, however, its contribution to sediment toxicity was relatively low as it was the least toxic SP.…”

“…As a result of their extensive applications, residues of current-use insecticides have been frequently detected in sediments from both agricultural Weston et al, 2004) and urban areas (Amweg et al, 2006;Ding et al, 2010;Hintzen et al, 2009;Holmes et al, 2008;Lao et al, 2010;Li et al, 2011;Trimble et al, 2009;Weston et al, 2005). Recently, Li et al (2011) reported detection of sediment-associated current-use insecticides in urban waterways of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in South China, and SPs were identified as one of the principal causes of sediment toxicity to benthic invertebrates .…”