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Assessing pesticide pollution risk: from field to watershed

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Abstract

Pesticides used for intensive agricultural production threaten the water resources of the French West Indies. For example, the pesticide chlordecone was used until the nineties in banana fields. Operational and simple tools are needed to assess the potential risk of pollution by pesticides. Here, we propose a method to assess the spatial variability of pollution risk on a watershed scale. This method proceeds in four steps: (1) surveying practices; (2) determining the pesticide load for each field in the watershed; (3) establishing an indicator of pollution contribution for each field based on the load of pesticide per year weighted by the toxicity and solubility of each molecule; and (4) spatializing the indicator. We applied this method to an agricultural watershed in the north of Martinique, French West Indies. The results showed detailed information of pesticide dose spread and the distribution of the pollution risk, highlighting risk areas. Specifically designed for the volcanic and tropical areas of the French West Indies, our method could be adapted by integrating other data on soil-climate conditions and the topography.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIRAD, UPR 26, PRAM, BP 214, 97285, Lamentin Cedex 2, Martinique, French West Indies, France

    Marie Houdart & Philippe Tixier

  2. CIRAD, UPR 26, avenue Agropolis, 34398, Montpellier Cedex 5, France

    André Lassoudière

  3. Unité ADER, Cemagref, 50 avenue de Verdun, Gazinet, 33612, Cestas Cedex, France

    Frédéric Saudubray

  4. UMR METAFORT, Cemagref, 24 avenue des Landais, BP 500085, 63172, Aubière Cedex, France

    Marie Houdart

Authors
  1. Marie Houdart
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  2. Philippe Tixier
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  3. André Lassoudière
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  4. Frédéric Saudubray
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Correspondence to Marie Houdart.

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Houdart, M., Tixier, P., Lassoudière, A. et al. Assessing pesticide pollution risk: from field to watershed. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 29, 321–327 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1051/agro:2008042

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/agro:2008042

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