Soil & Water Res., X:X | DOI: 10.17221/30/2026-SWR

Discovering complex pesticide pollution in river water irrigated soil/groundwater systems: From targeted analyses to non-targeted screening and backOriginal Paper

Alina Sadchenko ORCID...1, Petra Nováková ORCID...1, Aleš Klement ORCID...2, Miroslav Fér ORCID...2, Antonín Nikodem ORCID...2, Vít Kodeš ORCID...3, Radka Kodešová ORCID...3, Roman Grabic ORCID...1
1 South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Vodňany, Czech Republic
2 Department of Soil Science and Soil Protection, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
3 Department of Water Quality, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Prague, Czech Republic

Pesticides and their transformation products are increasingly detected in agricultural soils and surface waters, raising concerns about their persistence, mobility, and ecological impacts. Irrigation with river water contaminated by agricultural runoff represents a significant but understudied pathway contributing to soil pollution. In this study, we investigated pesticide occurrence across soils, irrigation water, and groundwater in three intensively cultivated river basins. Soil samples from vegetable-producing fields exhibited complex contamination profiles, with 12–40 co-occurring compounds and total residues frequently exceeding levels reported for European arable soils. Several pesticides, including pendimethalin, mandipropamid, and azoxystrobin, were found at notably high concentrations, with some soils surpassing 5 000 µg/kg. Comparison of detection frequencies across matrices revealed diverse transport and retention behaviour: while certain legacy compounds (e.g., atrazine metabolites) were ubiquitous in both surface and groundwater, others showed strong soil accumulation with limited mobility. Irrigation water was identified as a non-negligible contamination source, particularly for persistent and mobile substances, although direct field applications remained the dominant contributor to peak soil concentrations. By integrating targeted and non-target screening, this study provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of pesticide burdens in riverirrigated agricultural soils and highlights the need for improved monitoring strategies in systems where soil and water pollution are tightly interconnected.

Keywords: groundwater; irrigated agricultural soil; passive sampling; pesticide residues; surface water

Received: March 3, 2026; Accepted: April 10, 2026; Prepublished online: May 15, 2026 

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