:The behaviour and fate of chlorsulfuron in aqueous and soil systems were examined in laboratory studies. Aqueous hydrolysis was pH-dependent and followed pseudo-Ðrst-order degradation kinetics at 25¡C, with faster hydrolysis occurring at pH 5 (half-life 24 days) than at either pH 7 or 9 (half-lives [365 days). Degradation occurred primarily by cleavage of the sulfonylurea bridge to form the major metabolites chlorobenzenesulfonamide (2-chlorobenzenesulfonamide) and triazine amine (4-methoxy-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-amine). This route is a major degradation pathway in water and soil systems. Aqueous photolysis (corrected for hydrolysis) proceeded much more slowly (half-life 198 days) than aqueous hydrolysis and is not expected to contribute signiÐ-cantly to overall degradation. Hydrolysis in soil thin-layer plates exposed to light (half-life 80 days), however, progressed at a much faster rate than in dark controls (half life 130 days), which suggests that a mechanism other than direct photolysis may have been operative. An aerobic soil metabolism study (25¡C) in a Keyport silt loam soil (pH 6É4, 2É8% OM) showed that degradation was rapid (half-life 20 days). Dissipation in an anaerobic sediment/water system (initial pH of water phase 6É7, Ðnal pH 7É4) progressed much more slowly (half-life [365 days) than in aerobic soil systems. Major degradation products in aerobic soil included the chlorobenzenesulfonamide and triazine amine as in the aqueous hydrolysis study. Neither of these degradation products exhibited phytotoxicity to a variety of crop and weed species in a glasshouse experiment, and both exhibited an acute toxicological proÐle similar to that of chlorsulfuron in a battery of standard tests. Demethylation of the 4-methoxy group on the triazine moiety and subsequent cleavage of the triazine ring is another pathway found in both aqueous solution and soils, though di †erent bonds on the triazine amine appear to be cleaved in the two systems. Hydroxylation of the benzenesulfonamide moiety is a minor degradation pathway found in soils. Two soils amended with 0É1 and 1É0 mg kg~1 chlorsulfuron showed slight stimulation of nitriÐcation. The 1É0 mg kg~1 concentration of chlorsulfuron resulted in minor stimulation and inhibition of 14C-cellulose and 14C-protein degradation, respectively, in the same soils. Batch equilibrium adsorption studies conducted on four soils showed that adsorption was low in this system 13È54). Soil thin-layer (K oc chromatography of chlorsulfuron and its major degradation products demon-(R f \ 0É55È0É86) strated that the chlorobenzenesulfonamide had slightly less mobility and that the (R f \ 0É34È0É68) triazine amine was much less mobile than chlorsulfuron. In an aged column (R f \ 0É035È0É40) leaching study, subsamples of a Fallsington sandy loam 5É6, OM 1É4%) or a Flanagan silt (pH water loam 6É4, OM 4É0%) were treated with chlorsulfuron, aged moist for 30 days in a glass-(pH water house and then placed upon a prewet column of the same soil type prior to initiation of leaching....