New research led by The University of Queensland has provided the first comprehensive analysis of pesticide mixtures in creeks and rivers discharging to the Great Barrier Reef.
UQ’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences researcher Associate Professor Michael Warne conducted the study with the Queensland Department of Environment and Science, and analysed 2600 water samples from 15 waterways that discharge into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon over a four-year period.
“While I knew many water samples would contain mixtures, I was shocked to find that essentially every sample contained mixtures of pesticides,” Dr Warne said.
“We found 99.8 per cent of the samples contained pesticide mixtures with up to 20 pesticides in any single water sample.
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