and

Abstract. There is abundant, albeit fragmentary, evidence that prairie wet-lands are being contaminated extensively by agricultural pesticides (prima-rily herbicides and insecticides) and other anthropogenic contaminants. Such inputs can affect fundamental ecosystem properties such as primary production which, in turn, affects habitat and resource supply for wetland fauna. We review data on the use ofpesticides, off-site transport of residues from treated land, and the frequency with which these residues are subse-quently detected in receiving streams and wetlands on the prairies. As the environmental distribution of a pesticide is affected by its chemical and physical properties, and the abiotic and biotic characteristics of the receiv-ing wetland, greater insight into its ecological impacts will be obtainedfrom considering the underlying partitioning and degradative processes that de-termine distribution rather than from case-by-case studies of persistence