Soil monitoring in Europe: a review of existing systems and requirements for harmonisation

Official frameworks for soil monitoring exist in most member states of the European Union. However, the uniformity of methodologies and the scope of actual monitoring are variable between national systems. This review identifies the differences between existing systems, and describes options for harmonising soil monitoring in the Member States and some neighbouring countries of the European Union. The present geographical coverage is uneven between and within countries. In general, national and regional networks are much denser in northern and eastern regions than in southern Europe. The median coverage in the 50 km x 50 km EMEP cells applied all over the European Union, is 300 km(2) for one monitoring site. Achieving such minimum density for the European Union would require 4100 new sites, mainly located in southern countries (Italy, Spain, Greece), parts of Poland, Germany, the Baltic countries, Norway, Finland and France. Options are discussed for harmonisation of site density, considering various risk area and soil quality indicator requirements.

Pesticides in the groundwater of a spring draining a sandy aquifer: temporal variability of concentrations and fluxes

A 250 ha agricultural catchment has been characterized with respect to its hydrogeology and groundwater contamination by pesticides from October 1999 to August 2004. Five years after the ending of atrazine (At) application, used since the sixties, At and deethylatrazine (DEA) are still systematically quantified at the outlet of the watershed with concentrations from 0.07 to 0.43 microg l(-1) for At, and between 0.14 and 1.16 microg l(-1) for DEA. Isoproturon and chlortoluron are detected in only one (0.3 microg l(-1)) and two (0.7 and 2.0 microg l(-1)) of the 124 semi-monthly samples, respectively. DEA concentrations can be very different between two samples with a 15-day time step. The annual mean exported fluxes of cumulated At and DEA are stable, which indicates a long time transfer in the unsaturated or saturated zone with a progressive leaching of the stock of At and DEA probably accumulated in the soil and the vadose zone. These fluxes, between 0.90% and 2.82% of the annual mean dose of At applied before 1999, similar to those calculated in several studies at the bottom of the root zone, could be explained by low adsorption and degradation properties of At and DEA in the unsaturated and saturated zone.