Effects of Atrazine on Chesapeake Bay Aquatic Plants

摘要

The possibility of atrazine runoff from farmland being involved in the observed decline in submerged plant populations in Chesapeake Bay in recent years, was investigated using growth chamber studies. Dose-response studies using elodea and redheadgrass plants grown in jars in nutrient solution containing varying atrazine concentrations showed the 1% growth inhibition concentration level to be a few parts per billion (ppb) atrazine. The study concludes that, from the atrazine concentrations detected in Chesapeake Bay samples, atrazine was not likely to have caused the observed decline of submerged plants in the Bay.