Fate and significance of major degradation products of atrazine in the soil environment

Conference · Fri Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:126298

Coats, J R; Kruger, E L; Baluch, H U ^[1]

---

1. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States); and others

Complete metabolism studies using radiotracers were performed in the laboratory to determine the fate of atrazine and major degradation products, deethylatrazine, deisopropylatrazine, and hydroxyatrazine, in soil as affected by soil type, soil moisture, soil depth, and previous long-term atrazine history. Several soil factors have been shown to significantly affect the fate of these compounds in soil. Persistence of the 4 compounds was significantly increased in subsurface soils. Hydroxyatrazine was the most persistent of the 4 compounds in surface and subsurface soil. Desiopropylatrazine was the most susceptible to mineralization in both surface and subsurface soil. A higher amount of bound residues were formed in deisopropylatrazine-treated soils. Soil moisture significantly affects the persistence of atrazine, deethylatrazine and deisopropylatrazine with decreased persistence under saturated soil moisture conditions. Persistence of deethylatrazine was positively correlated with percent clay and negatively correlated with percent organic matter. In soils with long-term atrazine history, deethylatrazine undergoes enhanced degradation. In soil column studies, the relative movement of deethylatrazine was greater than that of atrazine.

• OSTI ID: 126298
• Report Number(s): CONF-950402--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
55 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
BASIC STUDIES
BIODEGRADATION
MINERALIZATION
RESIDUES
SOILS
TRACER TECHNIQUES
TRIAZINES