ZTen percent of all apples sold in Europe's supermarkets come from South Tyrolean growing areas. In the valleys of the Vinschgau along the Etsch, apple orchards stretch as far as the eye can see. Scientists had already suspected that the pesticides that farmers use there also spread to landscapes away from monocultures. Now this has been proven for the first time and published in the journal “Nature Communications Earth & Environment”.: Scientists from the TU Kaiserslautern and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna discovered 27 different plant protection products, ten insecticides, eleven fungicides and six weedkillers.
Although the amount of pesticide residues decreased with increasing altitude, they were also found in higher side valleys of the Vinschgau such as the Matscher Valley. Even in the protected areas with sensitive ecosystems, in the Stelfer Joch National Park around the Ortler, the highest mountain in South Tyrol, and in the Texelgruppe Nature Park on the main Alpine ridge, the substances were still measured.
Vinschgau, South Tyrol. The black dots indicate the locations where plants and soil samples were examined for pesticide residues.
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Image: Jakob Wolfram RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau
In recent years, fewer and fewer butterflies have been observed at higher altitudes around Vinschgau. The authors write that pesticides are probably one of the causes. At the measuring point where the number of butterflies is highest, no pesticide residues were detectable in plants and only two substances in the soil.
In total, the scientists tested plants and soil samples for 97 common pesticides. At the beginning of May, they collected sample material at 53 locations at elevations every 300 meters, from 500 to 2,300 meters above sea level.
The chemical analyzes show residues of pesticides in 98 percent of the plant and 59 percent of the soil samples. Meadows in valley areas were contaminated with up to 13 different substances. Most of the pesticides are against apple pests. Two neonicotinoids were also found in three of the soil samples. These are insecticides that have no longer been allowed to be used in the EU since 2020.
During a growing season, which lasts from March to September, farmers spray pesticides in the apple orchards up to 38 times.
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