Pesticides are widely used in modern conventional agriculture and contribute to meet the growing food demand. However, a small fraction of some active ingredients and their transformation products can be transported, via different pathways, to groundwater and surface water. This has led to a growing concern on ecological and public health.

The fate of pesticides is influenced by environmental conditions and physic-chemical characteristics of the pesticide. The processes of adsorption and degradation reduce mobility of a given pesticide once it has been applied to the soil. The herbicide mobility through the soil towards aquifers is accelerated due to the existence of preferential flow, which can exist in either structured soils, or be produced by plants roots and/or soil mesofauna. It is therefore important characterize soil structure and porosity, and to consider them when evaluating herbicide mobility. Pesticides applied to soil , also come to the surface water bodies by processes of water erosion or wind erosion , affecting aquatic environments .

The aim of this session is to discuss the state of the science in relation to fate and behavior of pesticides in the environment (soil, surface water , groundwater , air, vegetation , microorganisms, etc.) with scientists from various backgrounds. This session will include contributions from different areas:
1. Development, validation, and application of analytical methods for pesticides and their degradation/transformation products in samples of water, soil, sediment and air.
2. Field trials, monitoring and modeling on environmental fates of pesticides.
3. Effects of pesticides and pesticides mixtures on non-target organisms and interactions of various pesticide classes detected in natural environment.
4. Risk assessment of environmental contamination by pesticides.

The scientific session “The impact of pesticides in life, water, sediment, air and soil resources” will provide an opportunity to research teams working in different parts of the world to discuss their findings within the settings of a large conference. A selection of papers from this session will be published in Soil Science, after a peer review process.