Chemical and Ecotoxicological Assessment of Agricultural Drainage Water from a Maize Crop Area: A Case Study in the Tejo Basin (Portugal)

Abstract

The use of agricultural drainage water (ADW) in irrigation is a great challenge, improving water use efficiency, nutrient circularity, and avoiding surface and ground-water contamination. The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical and ecotoxicological characteristics of an ADW to analyze the safety of its reuse. An irrigated area with maize crops was selected (Tejo Basin, Portugal), where a subsurface structure for the recovery of ADW was installed, collecting the drainage in a pond and recycling it for crop irrigation. Water was collected monthly during the irrigation campaign of 2021 (April to August). Three herbicides and two metabolites were quantified, reaching a maximum concentration of 0.74 µg L−1 for S-metolachlor and 0.48 µg L−1 for terbuthylazine. The lethal bioassays did not detect toxicity, except for the sample collected in August toward Vibrio fisheri (EC50 = 25.2%). The samples were not toxic to Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata, with a growth inhibition rate of less than 10%. The low lethal and sublethal effects may be ascribed to the high nutrient concentration (e.g., 1.76 mg P L−1 and 98.9 mg NO3− L−1, in July) that could have masked toxic effects. Ecotoxicological responses support the option of ADW reuse in irrigation, offering a safe and sustainable solution for water and nutrient management.

Sorption and mobility assessment of tembotrione in soils of upper, trans and middle Gangetic plain zones of India

“…Water samples of the Samambaia River sub-basin in the Federal District and eastern Goias in Brazil, in the rainy season, showed a tembotrione level of 0.0390 μg/L (Correia et al, 2020). Agricultural drainage water samples collected from an irrigated field with maize crop at Tejo Basin, Poutugal showed the presence of three herbicides including tembotrione in the concentration 0.19 ± 0.10 μg/L (Palma et al, 2023). Surveillance for current-use pesticides in Maine's freshwater resources in Augusta, USA using surface water grab samples also revealed the presence of tembotrione residues (0.073 μg/L) (Bryer, 2021).…”