Plant Uptake of Pesticide Residues from Agricultural Soils

During recent decades, agriculture production has intensified by using a large number of chemical substances as pesticides to protect crops from unwanted fungi, weeds, and insects. It has been reported that long-time exposure of pesticides to different environmental conditions results in persistence of many derivatives of them in the environment. Intense global environmental issues have been raised due to the uptake of those pesticide residues present in agricultural soils by non-target organisms and planted crops. Indeed, the movement of such pesticide residue chemicals through the food chain may still cause potential health risks to humans. However, uptake of pesticide residues is more complicated and many factors have promoted the process. The uptake process and bioavailable concentrations of pesticide residues can highly differ depending on environmental conditions, characters of the planted crops, and physicochemical properties of the pesticides. Meanwhile, this chapter summarizes the pesticide residue types and their fate in the agricultural soils, highlighting the mechanisms as well as influencing factors for the plant uptake. Field-based investigations under natural conditions are required for future researches to make reasonable risk predictions for human health.