Agicultural pesticides: atmospheric tracing and transformations

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Agriculture is critical to the Canadian economy (>$29 billion). The prairies are the highest crop production region for grains and oil seeds in Canada and globally. The Lower Fraser Valley and Okanagan Valley in BC are high production areas for berries and fruit in Canada. These agricultural regions represent 78% of the total 42000 tonnes of pesticides used in Canada. Policy development to allow for high production rates with minimium impacts on human and ecosystem health is shifting internationally to an Integrated Assessment Modelling approach which allows for the opportunity to assess agricultural systems and agri-environmental policies and technologies over a range of scales. Agricultural systems possess considerable challenges as the processes cover water-soil-crop-atmospheric interactions on different spatial and temporal scales and are impacted by climate change, biodiversity, limited natural resources, food production, globalization of markets, population and economic growth. This research focuses on advancing process knowledge specific to the soil-crop-atmospheric interactions required for management and control of pesticide usage that may have negative environmental impacts or identified as a probable source of human exposure. It is critical to establishing Canada's position on a number of issues much broader than just pesticide control such as climate change. Long-term shifts in pesticide atmospheric levels and types of pesticides and transformation products detected offer a new opportunity to be used as early warning signs of the pressures on the agricultural sector from climate change. It also may provide insight into biodiversity and land-use changes such as the emerging issues related to declining bee populations and time shifts in the growing season. We aim to provide an assessment of annual and seasonal shifts in atmospheric levels of pesticides in North America along with improved understanding of pathways of atmospheric transport (gas/particle partitioning). We will continue to provide not only active ingredient information but also information on rarely monitored transformation products of pesticides on a temporal and spatial scale in these high crop production North American regions.