Agricultural pesticide in sediment cores from the Lac de Saint-André, France

Agricultural pesticide use has increased worldwide during the last several decades, but the long-term fate, storage, and transfer dynamics of pesticides in a changing environment are poorly understood. Many pesticides have been progressively banned, but in numerous cases, these molecules are stable and may persist in soils, sediments, and ice. Many studies have addressed the question of their possible remobilization as a result of global change. In this article, we present a retro-observation approach based on lake sediment records to monitor micropollutants and to evaluate the long-term succession and diffuse transfer of herbicides, fungicides, and insecticide treatments in a vineyard catchment in France. The sediment allows for a reliable reconstruction of past pesticide use through time, validated by the historical introduction, use, and banning of these organic and inorganic pesticides in local vineyards. Our results also revealed how changes in these practices affect storage conditions and, consequently, the pesticides' transfer dynamics. For example, the use of postemergence herbicides (glyphosate), which induce an increase in soil erosion, led to a release of a banned remnant pesticide (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, DDT), which had been previously stored in vineyard soil, back into the environment. Management strategies of ecotoxicological risk would be well served by recognition of the diversity of compounds stored in various environmental sinks, such as agriculture soil, and their capability to become sources when environmental conditions change.

137Cs and 90Sr depositions, and 137Cs/90Sr ratios of samples from the Kraton-3 underground nuclear explosion site, Russia

Strontium-90 activity concentrations in surface soils and areal deposition densities have been studied at a site contaminated by an accidental release to atmosphere from the underground nuclear explosion 'Kraton-3' conducted near the Polar Circle (65.9°N, 112.3°E) within the territory of the former USSR in 1978. In 2001-2002, the ground surface contamination at 14 plots studied ranged from 20 to 15000 kBq/m**2, which significantly exceeds the value of 0.44 kBq/m**2 deduced for three background plots. The zone with substantial radiostrontium contamination extends, at least, 2.5 km in a north-easterly direction from the borehole. The average 137Cs/90Sr ratio in the ground contamination originated from the 'Kraton-3' fallout was estimated to be 0.55, which is significantly different from the ratio of 2.05 evaluated for background plots contaminated mostly from global fallout. Although vertical migration of 90Sr in all undisturbed soil profiles studied is more rapid than that for 137Cs, the depth of percolation of both radionuclides into the ground is mostly limited to the top 10-20 cm, which may be explained, primarily, by permafrost conditions. The horizontal migration rate of radiostrontium in the aqueous phase exceeds the radiocaesium migration rate by many times. This phenomenon seems to be a reason for the significant enrichment of the soil surface layers by radiostrontium at some sites, with variations occurring in accordance with small-scale irregularities of landscape.

Activity concentrations of radionuclides in 5 short cores taken in 2007-2008 measured by ICP-MS and HPGe gamma spectrometry

Natural radionuclides and man-made 137Cs were analyzed in five short sediment cores taken in northern part of the Gulf of Eilat (Gulf of Aqaba) in order to provide information on sedimentation and mixing rates and sediment sources. The maximum estimates of sedimentation rates based on excess 210Pb were found to vary between 0.105 ± 0.020 and 0.35 ± 0.23 cm · year**-1. Even the lowest estimates are significantly higher than those expected from dust deposition, suggesting other sources and processes being responsible for most of the allochthonous material accumulation, including periodical floods following heavy rain events, internal erosion or triggers, like earthquakes. In 137Cs depth profiles no 1963 related nuclear weapon test maxima were found; instead, the activities decrease monotonically, suggesting that a major process leading to radionuclides' depth distribution might be mixing. The mixing rates calculated from 137Cs, excess 210Pb and excess 228Th reach values up to 2.18 ± 0.69 cm**2 · year**-1.