Organochlorine pesticides in soils of the horticultural belt of Bahía Blanca (Argentina)

Abstract

The land around Bahía Blanca, Argentina, has been farmed intensively for six decades. We report the concentrations of a number of organochlorine pesticides (DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor epoxide and lindane), and of DDT metabolites (DDD + DDE) in three different layers (0–5, 5–10 and 10–20 cm) of the soils in 44 fields of eight farms that have been devoted to horticulture for periods ranging from 15 to 60 yr. In spite of the horticultural use of these substances having been banned for the past 13–35 yr, high concentrations were found – up to nearly 12 mg kg-1 for DDT + DDD + DDE, 17 mg kg-1 for dieldrin, 4 mg kg-1 for endrin, 7 mg kg-1 for heptachlor epoxide and 0.8 mg kg-1 for lindane. The highest concentrations of DDT, dieldrin, endrin and heptachlor epoxide were found on the oldest farms, the highest levels of DDD + DDE on middle-aged farms (35–40 yr), and the hi ghest levels of lindane on 15–40-year-old farms that had rather lower soil pH than the older farms. Concentrations invariably decreased slightly with increasing depth, and for DDT, dieldrin and heptachlor epoxide they exhibited significant positive correlation with soil organic matter content. Principal components analysis confirmed the distinguishability of three groups of analytes: one comprising DDT, dieldrin, endrin and heptachlor epoxide associated with higher soil organic matter and clay contents; and two singletons, DDD + DDE associated with higher pH and lindane. We conclude that these pesticides have very limited mobility in these semiarid alkaline soils. Key words: Organochlorine, semiarid soils, horticulture, depth variation.