Soil column leaching of pesticides

Urban storm water infiltration systems are not reliable sinks for biocides: evidence from column experiments

Groundwater quality in urban catchments is endangered by the input of biocides, such as those used in facade paints to suppress algae and fungal growth and washed off by heavy rainfall. Their retention in storm water infiltration systems (SIS) depends, in addition to their molecular properties, on chemical properties and structure of the integrated soil layer. These soil properties change over time and thus possibly also the relevance of preferential flow paths, e.g. due to ongoing biological activity. To investigate the mobility of biocides in SIS, we analyzed the breakthrough of differently adsorbing tracers (bromide, uranine, sulforhodamine B) and commonly used biocides (diuron, terbutryn, octhilinone) in laboratory column experiments of undisturbed soil cores of SIS, covering ages from 3 to 18 years. Despite similar soil texture and chemical soil properties, retention of tracers and biocides differed distinctly between SIS. Tracer and biocide breakthrough ranged from 54% and 5%, to 96% and 54%, respectively. We related the reduced solute retention to preferential transport in macropores as could be confirmed by brilliant blue staining. Our results suggest an increasing risk of groundwater pollution with increasing number of macropores related to biological activity and the age of SIS.

Sub-Lethal Effects of Pesticides on the DNA of Soil Organisms as Early Ecotoxicological Biomarkers

This review describes the researches performed in the last years to assess the impact of pesticide sub-lethal doses on soil microorganisms and non-target organisms in agricultural soil ecosystems. The overview was developed through the careful description and a critical analysis of three methodologies based on culture-independent approaches involving DNA extraction and sequencing (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, DGGE; next-generation sequencing, NGS) to characterize the microbial population and DNA damage assessment (comet assay) to determine the effect on soil invertebrates. The examination of the related published articles showed a continuous improvement of the possibility to detect the detrimental effect of the pesticides on soil microorganisms and non-target organisms at sub-lethal doses, i.e., doses which have no lethal effect on the organisms. Considering the overall critical discussion on microbial soil monitoring in the function of pesticide treatments, we can confirm the usefulness of PCR-DGGE as a screening technique to assess the genetic diversity of microbial communities. Nowadays, DGGE remains a preliminary technique to highlight rapidly the main differences in microbial community composition, which is able to give further information if coupled with culture-dependent microbiological approaches, while thorough assessments must be gained by high-throughput techniques such as NGS. The comet assay represents an elective technique for assessing genotoxicity in environmental biomonitoring, being mature after decades of implementation and widely used worldwide for its direct, simple, and affordable implementation. Nonetheless, in order to promote the consistency and reliability of results, regulatory bodies should provide guidelines on the optimal use of this tool, strongly indicating the most reliable indicators of DNA damage. This review may help the European Regulation Authority in deriving new ecotoxicological endpoints to be included in the Registration Procedure of new pesticides.

Imidacloprid transport and sorption nonequilibrium in single and multilayered columns of Immokalee fine sand

Imidacloprid (IMD) is a neonicotinoid pesticide soil-drenched to many crops to control piercing-sucking insects such as the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP). Neonicotinoids are persistent in the environment and transport analyses are helpful estimate leaching potential from soils that could result in groundwater pollution. The objective of this study was to analyze IMD breakthrough under saturated water flow in soil columns packed with three horizons (A, E, Bh) of Immokalee Fine Sand (IFS). Also, we used the dimensionless form of the convective-dispersive model (CD-Model) to compare the optimized transport parameters from each column experiment (retardation factor, R; fraction of instantaneous-to-total retardation, β; and mass transfer coefficient, ω) with the parameters obtained from sorption batch equilibria and sorption kinetics. The tracer (Cl^-) breakthrough curves (BTCs) were symmetrical and properly described by the CD-Model. IMD BTCs from A, Bh, and multilayered [A+E+Bh] soil columns showed steep fronts and tailing that were well described by the one-site nonequilibrium (OSNE) model, which was an evidence of non-ideal transport due to IMD mass transfer into the soil organic matter. In general, IMD was weakly-sorbed in the A and Bh horizons (R values of 3.72 ± 0.04 and 3.08 ± 0.07, respectively), and almost no retardation was observed in the E horizon (R = 1.20 ± 0.02) due to its low organic matter content (0.3%). Using the HYDRUS-1D package, optimized parameters (R, β, ω) from the individual columns successfully simulated IMD transport in a multilayered column mimicking an IFS soil profile. These column studies and corresponding simulations agreed with previous findings from batch sorption equilibria and kinetics experiments, where IMD showed one-site kinetic mass transfer between soil surfaces and soil solution. Ideally, sandy soils should be maintained unsaturated by crop irrigation systems and rainfall monitoring during and after soil-drench application. The unsaturated soil will increase IMD retardation factors and residence time for plant uptake, lowering leaching potential from soil layers with low sorption capacity, such as the E horizon.