Herbicides residues in water bodies - a review

Abstract

Herbicides are the most important pesticides in the world and essential for food production. They are synthesized to affect plants but on the other hand can cause negative impact to non-target organisms in case of contamination of aquatic environments. Thus, monitor the loss of herbicides to aquatic environments is an indispensable assignment to practice a sustainable agriculture, especially in Brazil: the most important pesticide user in the world, one of the largest food producers and watershed holder. The purpose of the text is to present technical factors, operational, edaphoclimatic, physical and chemical of the herbicides and laws about water sources contamination by it. In addition, results of works that monitored herbicides in Brazilians water bodies and the main techniques for detection and quantification of these products also will be presented. Due to the importance of Brazil on the world stage, with respect to food production, studies related to the monitoring of herbicides in water sources should be developed more frequently, especially with respect to countries that have agriculture developed over time.