A METHOD FOR MONITORING PESTICIDES BOUND TO SUSPENDED PARTICLES IN SMALL STREAMS

A Suspended Particle Sampler (SPS) is described with which pesticides bound to suspended particles can be readily monitored in small streams . Retention of the grain-size fraction below 0.02 mm grain diameter de pends on the velocity of flow through the device, averaging 50% for 0. 05 m s(-1) and 15% for 0.41 m st. The advantage of the SPS lies in its simple, economical construction and in the slight expenditure of time and effort needed to use it. Comparison with other methods of monitor ing short-term pesticide contamination shows that the contamination va lues provided by the SPS describe the actual contamination dynamics co nsiderably better than do the data obtained by conventional sampling o f suspended sediments. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd