Organophosphorus and Organochlorine Pesticides Bioaccumulation byEichhornia crassipesin Irrigation Canals in an Urban Agricultural System

Urban Farm DB summary

In a natural wetland in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area — a major supplier of crops and flowers whose canals hold high concentrations of organochlorine (OC) and organophosphorus (OP) pesticides — bioaccumulation of these pesticides was studied in water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), a plant considered a plague but suggested in the literature to have phytoremediation potential. In vivo bioaccumulation differences for OC pesticides were largely explained by their log Kow, while all OP pesticides showed bioaccumulation regardless of log Kow, and the higher bioaccumulation factors of some accumulated OC pesticides could not be explained by log Kow alone, suggesting passive transport into the plant. Translocation ratios showed water hyacinth to be an accumulating plant with phytoremediation potential for all the organophosphorus pesticides studied and some organochlorine pesticides, and an equation for free water surface wetlands with floating macrophytes showed pesticide removal by the wetland with room for improvement through better management.