SHORT COMMUNICATION
Pesticide Accumulation in Turkey’s Meriç River
Basinwater and Sediment
More details
Hide details
1
Trakya University, İpsala Vocational School, Department of Laboratory Technology, İpsala/Edirne, Turkey
2
Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Department of Environmental Protection and Control, Eskişehir, Turkey
3
Anadolu University, Applied Environmental Research Centre, Eskişehir, Turkey
4
Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Department of Biology, Eskişehir, Turkey
Submission date: 2018-04-09
Final revision date: 2018-05-02
Acceptance date: 2018-12-15
Online publication date: 2019-09-17
Publication date: 2019-12-09
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2020;29(1):1003-1008
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The Meriç River is located in the Thrace Region of Turkey, which has great importance in terms of
agricultural potential and is known as “Rice Land”. The Meriç is also the longest river in the Balkans and
is known to be exposed to intensive pollution by means of special agricultural pressure on the system.
The aim of this study was to determine pesticide accumulation in water and sediment of the Meriç River
Basin. For this purpose, water and sediment samples were collected in spring (rainy) of 2017 from 24
stations selected on the basin and pesticide contents. A total of 174 different pesticide varieties were
investigated in water and sediment samples using liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry LC/MS.
According to detected data, the concentration of pesticide residues ranged from 30.4 ng/L (thiabendazole
in Meriç River) to 291,310 ng/L (carbendazim in Ergene River) for water samples, and from 12.4 ng/L
(spiroxamine in Gala Leke) to 15,947 (carbendazim in Ergene River) for sediment samples. There was
a clear dominance of the carbendazim in all the investigated aquatic habitats. It was also determined
that pesticide concentrations detected in the Meriç River Basin, especially in the Ergene River, were
found to be at quite high levels and the system has Class III–IV water quality in terms of total pesticide
accumulation.