Dataset: PollinERA pesticide residues

Pesticide residue concentrations measured by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in environmental matrices collected within the PollinERA project.

Residue concentrations per compound, sampling site, round and matrix, with limit of detection and CAS registry identifiers.

Pesticide residue measurements that are directly comparable across three European countries, collected under a single harmonised sampling design and analysed by one laboratory. Because the sampling sites and rounds are shared with the PollinERA pollinator monitoring activities, the data support the joint analysis of chemical exposure and pollinator response, which is rarely possible with residue datasets assembled from heterogeneous sources.

One record per compound and sample. Concentrations are reported in the unit given by the measurement unit column, together with the limit of detection of the analytical method.

Suitable for pollinator exposure assessment, environmental risk assessment of plant protection products, parameterisation and validation of toxicokinetic-toxicodynamic (TKTD) models, spatial and temporal comparison of residue profiles between countries and matrices, and meta-analyses combining chemical and ecological monitoring data.

Known limitations of this dataset. (1) 432 CAS Registry numbers arrived corrupted by spreadsheet date auto-conversion and were reconstructed before publication; the reconstruction is verified by the CAS check digit and by the compound names in the source file, but the corrected identifiers should be confirmed by the data owner. (2) No sampling coordinates and no taxon identifiers are included: this is a chemical residues table, so the PMS descriptors for coordinates and gbifTaxonID do not apply to it. (3) The metadata sheet of the source workbook documents a column ID (pms:ppdbID) that is not present in the data sheet, and the data sheet contains a column n that is not documented in the metadata sheet. (4) Concentrations below the limit of detection are recorded as empty values, not as zeros.

This dataset reports pesticide residue concentrations measured in environmental matrices collected within the PollinERA project (Horizon Europe). Chemical analyses were performed by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). The dataset links measured residue levels to the sampling sites, rounds and matrices of the PollinERA pollinator co-monitoring scheme, so that chemical exposure can be related to pollinator observations collected under the same design.

Samples were collected in 2024 at PollinERA sites in Italy (ITA), Poland (POL) and Sweden (SWE), across two sampling rounds per site. Nine matrix types are represented, identified by the codes AN, AP, BF, HF, MT, PS, SS, WB and WS. Sampling followed the M11 protocol for pesticide and pollinator co-monitoring. Residue quantification was carried out by SLU using two analytical methods: liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MSMS) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Each record carries the limit of detection (LOD) of the method applied and states whether the concentration was determined on dry or fresh matter.

The source workbook was processed with the PollinERA QA/QC module before publication. Two corrections were applied to the data. First, 432 CAS Registry numbers had been silently auto-converted into dates by a spreadsheet application and were stored as date serial numbers; the original identifiers were reconstructed from the date components and independently confirmed by their CAS check digit and by the compound names recorded in the file: dodine (CAS 2439-10-3, 252 records) and picloram (CAS 1918-02-1, 180 records). Second, one Concentration cell containing only whitespace was normalised to an empty value. Column headers were then mapped to PMS and Darwin Core descriptors, using the descriptor assignments documented in the metadata sheet of the source workbook.

Validated with the PollinERA QA/QC module. 432 CAS registry numbers that had been auto-converted to dates by a spreadsheet were reconstructed and verified with the CAS check digit before publication.

The dataset contains measured values only; no aggregated statistics or derived exposure metrics are included. Each record reports a single compound measured in a single sample, together with the limit of detection of the analytical method. Values below the limit of detection are represented as empty concentration cells rather than as zeros, so non-detections must be handled explicitly and interpreted against the LOD column rather than treated as absence of the compound.