Pesticide degradation rates rate coefficients

PRZM was applied to a hypothetical situation of a pesticide In a Georgia agricultural environment. An overall, pseudo-first-order degradation rate coefficient of 0.001 day was used, along with a series of values. A cover crop of peanuts was assumed. The simulation was done for a 900 g/ha application to a class A soil (well drained) and a class D soil (poorly drained). Movement through the root zone was simulated using rainfall records. In the hypothetical 1-ha plot, 800 g and 550 g of the pesticide leached past 60 cm In the class A and D soils, respectively, when a Kj value of 0.06 was used 40 g and 5 g leached past 60 cm In the class A and D soils, respectively, when a Kj value of 1.5 was used. These computational results support the conclusion on Kj values stated at the end of this paper. 

Table 6.4 shows first-order rate coefficients and tx/2 values for degradation of a number of pesticides in soils (Rao and Davidson, 1982). The k and t1/2 values calculated from field data are based on the disappearance of the parent compound (solvent extractable). Table 6.4 also includes k and t1/2 values calculated on mineralization (14C02 evolution) and parent-compound disappearance from laboratory studies. The t1/2 values were smaller for field than for laboratory studies. Rao and Davidson (1980) attribute this to the multitude of factors that can affect pesticide disappearance in the field while only one factor is studied in the laboratory. Rao and Davidson (1982) suggested that pesticides be classified into three groups based on values (Table 6.5) nonpersistent (t1/2 < 20 days), moderately persistent (20 < t1/2 < 100 days), and persistent (/1/2 > 100 days). Most chlorinated hydrocarbons are grouped as persistent, while carboxyl-kanoic acid herbicides are nonpersistent. The s-triazines, substituted ureas, and carbamate pesticides are moderately persistent. 

TABLE 6.4 Degradation Rate Coefficients and Half-Lives t1/2) for Several Pesticides under Laboratory and Field Conditions0... 

The sorption and degradation characteristics listed for most pesticide compounds in terms of partition coefficients and half-lives relate only to a (standard) fertile, organic clayey soil and must not to be taken as representative of the permeable sandy soils widely developed on aquifer outcrops. Thus leaching of 1% of original application rates, and perhaps significantly higher, could easily occur for certain compounds on permeable soils. 

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