Impact of Pesticides on Invertebrates in Aquatic Ecosystem

Abstract

Aquatic ecosystems do not contain more than a fragment of the global water resources, but they are exclusive and complex habitats due to the extremely close association between terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The important fish stocks and a unique set of organisms that provides priceless consumer services, such as chemical water purification and organic matter processing, are affected. The pollution of aquatic ecosystems with pesticides applied in agricultural production is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest anthropogenic stressors to stream ecosystems, and agricultural pesticides are known to cause a threat to all living organisms in stream ecosystems. The general objective of this chapter is to study the effects of agricultural pesticides on invertebrates. There are only a few evaluating effects of pesticide contamination resulting from normal agricultural practice on invertebrates, and there is a lack of studies focusing on the indirect effects of pesticides. The importance of physical habitat degradation in the assessment and mitigation of pesticide risk in agricultural streams will be discussed.