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Sustainability
Volume 10
Issue 7
10.3390/su10072380
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Article

Potential Sources of Anthropogenic Copper Inputs to European Agricultural Soils

by
Panos Panagos
1,*,
Cristiano Ballabio
1,
Emanuele Lugato
1,
Arwyn Jones
1,
Pasquale Borrelli
2,
Simone Scarpa
1,
Alberto Orgiazzi
1 and
Luca Montanarella
1
1
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Directorate for Sustainable Resources, IT-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy
2
Environmental Geosciences Department, University of Basel, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2018, 10(7), 2380; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072380
Received: 8 June 2018 / Revised: 26 June 2018 / Accepted: 5 July 2018 / Published: 9 July 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Heavy Metals in Agricultural Soils: Sources, Releases and Environmental Impacts)
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Abstract

In the European Union (EU), copper concentration in agricultural soil stems from anthropogenic activities and natural sources (soil and geology). This manuscript reports a statistical comparison of copper concentrations at different levels of administrative units, with a focus on agricultural areas. Anthropogenic sources of diffuse copper contamination include fungicidal treatments, liquid manure (mainly from pigs), sewage sludge, atmospheric deposition, mining activities, local industrial contamination and particles from car brakes. Sales of fungicides in the EU are around 158,000 tonnes annually, a large proportion of which are copper based and used extensively in vineyards and orchards. Around 10 million tonnes of sewage sludge is treated annually in the EU, and 40% of this (which has a high copper content) is used as fertilizer in agriculture. In the EU, 150 million pigs consume more than 6.2 million tonnes of copper through additives in their feed, and most of their liquid manure ends up in agricultural soil. These three sources (sales of fungicides, sewage sludge and copper consumption for pigs feed) depend much on local traditional farming practices. Recent research towards replacing copper spraying in vineyards and policy developments on applying sewage and controlling the feed given to pigs are expected to reduce copper accumulation in agricultural soil. View Full-Text
Keywords: fungicides; slurry; sewage sludge; LUCAS; soil contamination; vineyards fungicides; slurry; sewage sludge; LUCAS; soil contamination; vineyards
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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MDPI and ACS Style

Panagos, P.; Ballabio, C.; Lugato, E.; Jones, A.; Borrelli, P.; Scarpa, S.; Orgiazzi, A.; Montanarella, L. Potential Sources of Anthropogenic Copper Inputs to European Agricultural Soils. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2380. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072380

AMA Style

Panagos P, Ballabio C, Lugato E, Jones A, Borrelli P, Scarpa S, Orgiazzi A, Montanarella L. Potential Sources of Anthropogenic Copper Inputs to European Agricultural Soils. Sustainability. 2018; 10(7):2380. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072380

Chicago/Turabian Style

Panagos, Panos, Cristiano Ballabio, Emanuele Lugato, Arwyn Jones, Pasquale Borrelli, Simone Scarpa, Alberto Orgiazzi, and Luca Montanarella. 2018. "Potential Sources of Anthropogenic Copper Inputs to European Agricultural Soils" Sustainability 10, no. 7: 2380. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072380

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