Tag Archives: Fiolka

Polluted surface waters, not just a problem for aquatic organisms: Biomagnification of flood-borne pesticides in plant-feeding aphids

Surface waters are polluted with a variety of contaminants, including synthetic pesticides. A study by Franziska Fiolka and colleagues from the RTG SystemLink in Landau, recently published in the journal “Chemosphere”, is the first to examine if repeated flood events lead to an increase in pesticide concentration in the riparian zone, including plant-feeding insects. It shows that pesticide concentrations in soil and nettle increase with an increase in flooding frequency, and further, that aphids feeding on contaminated riparian plants are able to take up these pesticides.

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Flooding linked with higher contamination in riparian zone

Fiolka - Riparian Zone

In this blog post, Franziska Fiolka and colleagues discuss their study investigating flooding as a vector for organic pesticides, linking aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They assessed regularly and rarely flooded riparian plant contamination profiles in small streams around the Upper Rhine valley and found more and higher concentrations of organic pesticides in regularly flooded riparian soil and plants.

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