Phytotoxicity of atrazine and alachlor in soil amended with sludge, manure and activated carbon

Abstract

Greenhouse studies were conducted to determine the influence of waste-activated carbon (WAC), digested municipal sewage sludge (DMS), and animal manure on herbicidal activity of atrazine [2-chloro-4-(ethylamino)-6-(isopropylamino)-s-trazine] and alachlor [2-chloro-2',6'-diethyl-N-(methoxymethyl)acetanilide] in a Plainfield sandy soil. Amendments generally reduced bioactivity against oat (Avena sativa L.) and Japanese millet (E. crus-galli frumentacea).The extent to which herbicide phytotoxicity was inhibited depended upon the application rate and the kind of soil amendment. WAC, applied at the loading rate of 2.1 mt C/ha, showed a significant inhibitory effect on both herbicides. In DMS-and manure-amended soil, the reduction of atrazine activity was not significant at the rate 513 Copyright© 1991 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. GUO ET AL.of 8.4 mt C/ha, but reduction of alachlor activity was significant at the rate of 4.2 mt C/ha. Despite inhibition of herbicidal activity, the ED 50 of atrazine and alachlor was below 2 ppm in most of the amendment treatments. Before adopting carbon-rich waste amendments as management practices for controlling pesticide leaching in coarsetextured soils, further studies are needed to characterize how alterations in sorption, leaching and degradation may affect herbicidal activity.

Impacts of Biochar (Black Carbon) Additions on the Sorption and Efficacy of Herbicides

“…Guo et al (1991) suggested that atrazine and alachlor degradation could be inhibited by the presence of waste activated carbon, and stimulated by other uncharred amendments, such as municipal sewage sludge and manure. An increase on atrazine degradation by the addition of organic amendments to a sandy loam soil was also reported by Mukherjee (2009).…”

Bioremediation of pendimethalin-contaminated soil

“…Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effects of various environmental factors on the growth ability of the tested microorganisms (Pattanasupong et al, 2004). On the other hand, it was found that various materials were used as soil amendments, nutrients, to increase and enhance the degradation potential of xenobiotics such as Yard manure compost (Guo et al, 1991;Cole et al, 1995;Gan et al, 1996;Zheng and Cooper, 1996;Vogel, 1996;Grigg et al, 1997;Leoni et al, 1997), biogas slurry and compost (Kadian et al, 2008;Belal et al, 2008). However, after remediation toxicity assessments are needed.…”

Activated carbon amendment to remediate contaminated sediments and soils: a review

“…In addition, at such high concentrations, an overload of the GAC and PAC (Table 2) ]) largely consists of results of pesticide uptake by plants from polluted soils. The plants studied by Guo et al (1991) were oat and Japanese millet, and the investigated herbicides atrazine and alachlor. Successful reductions of pesticide uptake was only achieved when adding high concentrations (43.8%) of waste AC (WAC).…”

“…Therefore, researchers started to use alternative carbon material like e.g. biochar (Yu et al, 2009), coke breeze (Zimmerman et al, 2004;Millward et al, 2005), waste AC (Guo et al, 1991), fly ash (Burgess et al, 2009), and many more. Further drawbacks and side effects of AC amendment, such as the stability of the AC material, physical alteration of the matrices, direct or indirect harmful effects on, and nutrient availability to organisms will be discussed in "Factors potentially reducing the efficiency of AC amendment and other side effects" section.…”