Part of the book: Herbicides
In recent years, pharmaceutical pollution in the environment has been a great concern due to the potential effects on the human and animal health. Some of the most used classes such as antibiotics, which are used to prevent and treat bacterial infections and promote the growth of livestock, deserve to be highlighted since their intensive use has contaminated environmental matrices such as soil, water, sediment, plants, and animals with effects on the biota. To better understand the potential ecological risk of antibiotics in environments and to develop management strategies for these substances searching to reach the reduction of these compounds in aquatic systems, one of the most important steps is to determine the environmental concentrations of these compounds in the environments through analytical methods and evaluate their effects on the biota. The goal of this chapter is contribute with information about the effects of these compounds on the biota as well as its environmental behavior and bacterial resistance in additional to the main techniques for samples preparation and quantitative and confirmatory methods for its determination in the environment.
Part of the book: Emerging Pollutants in the Environment
Herbicide resistance mechanisms involve altered absorption, translocation, and metabolism of herbicides (i.e., glyphosate), and this is an important component in the study of herbicide resistance mechanisms as well. 14C-herbicides are used in resistant weeds studies, since they provide some advantages in comparison with chemical measures, including greater sensitivity, stepwise description of a particular element in a metabolic system, herbicide position, detection through X-ray films and/or radio image, and liquid scintillation. However, an up-to-date, organized description and standardization of research procedures and methodology on the use of radioisotopes for detection of resistant weeds, through different mechanisms of absorption, translocation, and metabolism in comparison with susceptible weeds are lacking in the literature. Techniques that use 14C such as tracers are extremely useful to study the herbicides behavior in the resistant weed, since the radiometric techniques offer the possibility of accurately determining very small amounts in a relatively short time. However, mechanism of resistance to herbicides in this resistant weed population compared with the susceptible population cannot be due to differential absorption, translocation, or metabolism of herbicide in weed; so other studies are necessary to elucidate the mechanism of herbicide resistance on weed population.
Part of the book: Herbicide Resistance in Weeds and Crops
Improved understanding of herbicide destinations, effects, and environmental risks through worldwide studies is crucial to minimizing impacts to nontarget organisms, especially in tropical regions rich in biodiversity. In recent years, there has been widespread international concern about the toxic effects of herbicides on humans, faunas, and native floras. Therefore, the adoption of agricultural practices that minimize the environmental effects of herbicides has been frequently studied, for example, the addition of biochar in agricultural soils. Biochar can be defined as the by-product of a thermal process conducted under low oxygen or oxygen-free conditions (pyrolysis) to convert plant biomass to biofuels, where biochar is the solid product of pyrolysis. The addition of biochar to the soil can easily potentiate the herbicide retention process, which, in addition to contributing positively to the reduction of chemical contaminants in the environment, may exert negative effects on herbicide behavior and the efficacy of these products on weed control. Thus, this chapter will present the general characteristics of biochar, as well as the impact of this material on sorption-desorption of herbicides in the soil.
Part of the book: Advanced Sorption Process Applications
Herbicides are frequently used in the chemical control of weeds in various crops in Brazil and worldwide, so they are more frequently detected outside the application areas, contributing to the risk of environmental contamination. The importance of knowledge of the physicochemical properties of the environment and the pesticide used in the agricultural area is in order to understand its effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the search for the prevention of future bioaccumulation potentials (bioconcentration and/or biomagnification) of molecules of pesticides in living nontarget organisms, minimizing their negative effects on the environment. The understanding of analytical techniques for measuring the quality of water resources as well as techniques for the remediation of contaminated water is essential to minimize the possible impacts caused by the application of pesticides to the environment.
Part of the book: Biochemical Toxicology
Ozonation is an efficient process for water and wastewater treatment, widely used for the disinfection and oxidation of organic pollutants. This process is effective, however, some pollutants are ozone-resistant. For better oxidation, enhanced production of hydroxyl radicals (HO•) can be obtained through the transition metals insertion in solution, known as homogeneous catalytic ozonation. These metals may react directly with O3 to produce HO• or interact with organics such as humic substances in the water matrix to promote O3 transformation to HO•. In this chapter, a short review of the homogeneous catalytic ozonation, including key aspects, such as pH effect, metals concentration, catalytic mechanisms, drawbacks of the homogeneous catalytic ozonation application, and the possible solution for it was provided.
Part of the book: Heavy Metals