There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
A portion of all herbicides applied to forests, croplands, road sides, and gardens
are inevitably lost to water bodies either directly through runoff or indirectly by
leaching through groundwater into ephemeral streams and lakes. Once in the aquatic
environment, herbicides may cause stress within aquatic communities and radically
alter community structure. Atrazine is one of the most effective and inexpensive herbicides
in the world and is consequently used more frequently than any other herbicide. Atrazine
is frequently detected in aquatic waters, and has been known to affect reproduction
of aquatic flora and fauna, which in turn impacts on the community structure as a
whole. This paper presents a summary of the reported direct and indirect impacts of
atrazine on aquatic organisms and community structure. The information can be used
for developing improved management guidelines and legislation. It is concluded that
a single universal maximum limit on the atrazine application in catchments, as suggested
by many regulatory authorities, does not provide adequate protection of the aquatic
environment. Rather, it is advocated that flexible limits on the application of atrazine
be developed in line with the potential risk of contamination to surface and subsurface
water and fragility of the aquatic environment.