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(T/FF238) Pesticide risk assessment on a wetland in Argentina. Silva, Carla1, Boia, Cristina1, Borrego, Carlos1, 1 ABSTRACT- This project is within the framework of the European Commission project "The Sustainable Management of Wetland Resources in Mercosur". There are two overall objectives in the project: to create the tools and methodology for a management of wetland resources that are socially, economically and environmentally acceptable; and to institute a long term study of the impacts of large scale regional socio-economical development on wetland resource quality. The studied site is a large wetland area (1300000 ha ) in northeastern Argentina, the "Esteros del Ibera", a complex ecosystem which includes many lagoons inhabited by wild animals (alligators, monkeys, swamp deers, etc.). Rice culture has been identified as the main consumer of water from the "Esteros", being necessary to define the maximum flows that can be used without compromising hydrological balance. Simultaneously, discharges of a part of the used waters containing pesticides return into the "Esteros", while contributing to the maintenance of the water level, can also affect the ecosystem equilibrium, due to a potential contamination of the trophic chain. This particular study intends to evaluate the impacts of pesticides used in rice culture through identification of their toxicological and physicochemical properties and use of multimedia / fugacity mathematical modelling to identify the potentially more contaminated environmental compartments, in order to define a correct sampling plan. The purpose of this paper is to present the characterisation of the pesticide use in the rice fields, and the results of the multimedia model application. These results will be later validated against experimental measures and the use of a biosensor. Key words: Pesticides, Toxicology, Assessment, Models |
