Environmental monitoring and risk assessment in a tropical Costa Rican catchment under the influence of melon and watermelon crop pesticides

Pesticides Burden in Neotropical Rivers: Costa Rica as a Case Study

“…Herbicides were more frequently detected in the South Pacific > Caribbean > North Pacific > Northern Caribbean > horticulture > Central Pacific, while insecticides and nematicides frequencies were highest in the mountain horticulture > Caribbean > South Pacific > Northern Caribbean > North Pacific > Central Pacific. It is noteworthy that the Central Pacific region has a considerably lower sampling effort than other areas, and almost no pesticides were detected in the analyzed samples; however, Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al [ 42 ] conducted an intensive sampling (84 water samples) from 2008 to 2011 in melon and watermelon influenced catchments and found one fungicide and seven insecticides in concentrations that pose an acute and chronic risk to Daphnia magna , fish, and Chironomus riparius . This situation highlights the importance of increasing the sampling effort in that region.…”

Ecological Integrity Impairment and Habitat Fragmentation for Neotropical Macroinvertebrate Communities in an Agricultural Stream

“…The Neotropical region has the particularity of maintaining optimal temperature conditions for crops throughout the year [ 13 ]; therefore, agriculturally related stress factors are permanent, with no resting or recovery periods for the streams. Multiple authors have provided evidence of high risk for invertebrates and primary producers derived from pesticides detected in tropical agricultural watersheds [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Moreover, these stressors coexist with other Neotropical conditions such as high variation in rainfall due to climate change (especially in Central America), which might affect seasonal patterns of biota or even produce mortality in heavy drought or flood events [ 21 ].…”