Occurrence of emerging contaminants and microplastics in several hot spots of Saudi Arabia. Bioaccumulation and plant uptake from wastewaters used in agricultura

Trabajo presentado en la GLOBAQUA Final Conference: Water river management under water scarcity and multiple stressors, celebrada en Barcelona del 18 al 19 de diciembre de 2018In arid zones, the use of treated wastewater for crop irrigation and the recurrent applications of pesticides to fight against pest increase the number of emerging contaminants (ECs) in crops (Pico et al. 2019). The consequences of these practices are still unknown due to the scarcity of studies, most of them performed under laboratory conditions at high concentrations (Pico et al. 2019). This study aims at assessing the problem of environmental contamination due to the use of non-conventional water resources that will get worldwide dimension soon in two areas of Saudi Arabia heavily affected by the reuse of treated wastewater and pesticide in order to ascertain its scale. The novelty of the study relays in the large number of ECs covered and the variety of crops (cabbage, barley, green beans, eggplants, chili, tomato and zucchini) analysed in the Al Hayer and Al-Asfar.The financial support from the Distinguished Scientist Fellowship Program (DSFP) from King Saud University, Saudi Arabia is gratefully acknowledged. R. Álvarez acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for his FPI grant BES-2016-078612. The mass spectrometry section of the SCSIE of the Universitat de València is also acknowledge for help.Peer reviewe