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Rostock (dpa) - The weed killer glyphosate can now also be detected in the sea thanks to a new measurement method.
The process makes it possible to detect both the controversial herbicide itself and its degradation product in salt water samples, according to a message from the Leibnitz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW), where the process was developed.
This will make it possible in future to monitor the pollution of the marine environment with the substances.
Glyphosate is one of the most widely used weed killers worldwide.
The controversial agent is also used in Germany and reaches streams, rivers and lakes from the countryside.
Glyphosate and its breakdown product AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic acid) could also get into the sea with the rivers - according to the researchers, however, it had not yet been possible to measure the substances there.
"The starting point for our current study was therefore the question of whether glyphosate and AMPA actually do not reach the sea - for example through biological degradation and deposition in rivers - or whether it is simply methodological difficulties that have so far prevented detection in marine ecosystems" , explains IOW researcher Marisa Wirth.
The marine chemist and her team have now shown that the salt in the sea water actually interferes with the measurement methods previously used.
The scientists developed a method that also works in water with salinity, such as those typically found in the Baltic Sea and the open seas.
They finally successfully tested the method on seven environmental samples from the western Baltic Sea.
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According to the research institute, the measured concentrations are far below those values that have been discussed as questionable for humans and organisms.
Since these are only selective measurements, it is not yet possible to make a reliable assessment of the extent to which the substances endanger the Baltic Sea.
"We now have a sufficiently sensitive and reliable method with which one can carry out meaningful environmental monitoring in the sea for both substances," says Wirth.
Studies on the transport, persistence or degradation of glyphosate and AMPA in the marine environment are now also possible.
So far, science has not been able to conclusively clarify how dangerous glyphosate is.
The International Agency for Cancer Research classifies the plant protection product as "probably carcinogenic".
In contrast, licensing authorities in large agricultural countries see no dangers.
In December 2017, the EU Commission decided to extend the European approval for glyphosate by five years.
Press release IOW