Marc Lucotte

marc

Impacts of pollutants
and environnemental risks

Université du Québec à Montréal
Département des sciences de la Terre et de l'atmosphère
Institut des sciences de l'environnement
Pages connexes

The research activities conducted in my team are based on two complementary axes: 1) Rather disciplinary aspects have essentially been covered under successive NSERC DG programs. The dynamics of trace metals, terrigenous organic molecules, pesticides in various natural and perturbed environments is studied thanks to cutting edges analyses in my Environmental Biogeochemistry Laboratory 2) Interdisciplinary applications have been achieved thanks to ambitious national and international research projects I have been leading such as 2 consecutive NSERC strategic partnership projects and 2 consecutive Innov’Action projects funded by MAPAQ. These projects are based on an ecosystem approach promoting collaborations between natural sciences, human health and social sciences specialists.

Most of the independent research on the environmental and agronomic impacts of glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) has been hampered by analytical difficulties in measuring glyphosate and its main metabolite, the aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA). For the past six years, we succeeded in my Environmental Biogeochemistry Laboratory to overcome this major limitation and we are now able to routinely measure glyphosate and AMPA content in all environmental compartments, a rare analytical ability only achieved in very few laboratories around the world. Within the SABRE NSERC strategic partnership project (Salix for Energetic Riparian Buffer Strips), we showed that GBH leaching from agricultural soils to nearby streams did affect planktonic diversity and biomass. On the other hand, the installation of 3 m wide riparian buffer strips (in compliance with Québec policy) did not alleviate the problem. Along with the MYFROG NSERC strategic partnership project (Maintaining high Yields in Québec Field crops while Reconsidering the Option of using Glyphosate), we conducted a series of research projects in collaboration with Québec farmers, about the impacts of massive GBH applications as well as municipal biosolids on crop quality and agricultural soils functions. We demonstrated that plants do absorb glyphosate and AMPA through their roots, and that glyphosate may degrade into AMPA in the plant tissue. We also pointed out that the nutritional quality of glyphosate-tolerant maize and soybean could be affected by repeated GBH applications. I am presently developing new research project within the newly funded Québec Research Network for Sustainable Agriculture.